Suddenly, it was 2003 again for Andy Roddick, slashing and hustling and playing with extreme confidence, just as he did as he torched his way through a series of tournaments leading to the U.S. Open title that year.
His clothes bore a Reebok logo instead of today’s Lacoste crocodile. Brad Gilbert was in the coaching box then instead of Larry Stefanki. And he’s a bit of a different player now than then — much more confident in his backhand and using it to annoy Roger Federer with no-pace slice crosscourts to within an inch or two of the baseline.
But as I watched this Monday night masterpiece unfold, it did seem like nine years ago, when Andy slammed through Indianapolis, Montreal and Cincinnati and on to New York to win his only Grand Slam — in fact, the last American man to win a major.
He was 27-1 on that roll through the Open, including a win in the semifinals at Montreal over Federer, and this third-round 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 win over Federer on Key Biscayne had that same feeling of prominence.
Roddick loves night tennis. You get the feeling Federer does not as you recall his other evening losses at Key Biscayne. But with Roddick, the juices were flowing for this prime time match, even after going down meekly in the second set. He had great body language. He did a lot of toweling off, but he always seemed to be in a hurry for the next point.
There wasn’t a hint of the injuries that has forced his game to regress for much of the past two years and, while he doesn’t have Federer’s overall skill, he does have that serve and he was just driving it Monday night — 74 percent firsts in play in the final set with seven aces.
He used his serve to ward off four break points in Game 2 of the final set. He slammed a 135 mph ace up the middle to hold at 4-2, then a 127 mph ace down the middle from the ad court to hold to 5-3. And, finally, a crunching service winner on the final point, deep to the corner of the ad court with Federer throwing his right arm out, futilely, in an effort to get a return.
It was all there for Roddick on this evening and he looked by far the fresher player in the final set. There will be memorable points from this match. There was Roddick in the second game of the final set displaying beautiful footwork to line up an inside-in. There was Roddick breaking to 2-1 in the final set, buggy-whipping a running forehand that must have left Federer gaping.
Andy began this match content to get on Federer’s backhand with those crosscourt backhand slices, but when Roger began timing those shots better in the second set, Roddick made the adjustment. Once again, he was hitting inside-out forehands instead of backhand slices — just like 2003.
And once again, he was winning — just like 2003.
Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com