By Charles Bricker
I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard veteran tennis players comment that they can’t change their games, can’t add a new facet to their games, can’t make a necessary adjustment in their games because “that’s just not me,” or “that’s not my game.”
What separates Andy Roddick at age 27, and that’s not to suggest he’s an isolated case, is that he has been open to change, and that’s a big reason why he won the Sony Ericsson Open on Sunday and why he’s picked up his fifth Masters (or ATP 1000) shield and first since Cincinnati in 2006.
Players don’t like to change their play or modify how they play because they remember how many years they put in as juniors just to play well enough to turn professional. Now, at 26 or 27, merely thinking about change is mentally exhausting.
But Roddick understands, or been made to understand, that the men’s landscape has changed greatly since his near-undefeated run to the U.S. Open title in 2003. There is now Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and, somewhere out there recovering from injury, Juan Martin Del Potro.
Change or drown. That was the reality, and Roddick chose change. When he began his coaching association with Larry Stefanki on Dec. 1, 2008, he had picked the right catalyst. Like Roddick’s previous coach, Jimmy Connors, Stefanki didn’t need this job. He was comfortable, settled in with his family in southern California. And one thing has always been certain about Larry Stefanki — whether he was coaching John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Tim Henman or Fernando Gonzalez, there would be no ego involved. I think Roddick liked that enormously about Stefanki.
Roddick has gone through a few coaches in his career. Tarik Benhabiles was the perfect choice for his last junior years and his early pro years, teaching Andy how to be prepare for a professional career.
Then, the switch to Brad Gilbert, who was very high profile and pumped Roddick up to new heights. With Gilbert, he tore through the U.S. hardcourt season and won the 2003 U.S. Open.
Enter the more laid-back Dean Goldfine. Wayyyy laid-back and maybe too much so for Roddick. It didn’t last and, for a short time, Roddick worked with older brother John until he hired Jimmy Connors.
The blast-away, full speed ahead game that won that major wasn’t going to hold up as Federer, Nadal and others rose to the top. Roddick made some improvements. Connors worked some technical adjustments to his backhand that gave Andy more confidence in the stroke. But it was Stefanki who solidified the one factor that has made a difference in Roddick’s game today.
Patience.
One of the highest moments in Roddick’s semifinal win last Friday over Nadal was coming out on top of a 14-stroke rally that pushed Roddick to display not only his more reliable backhand but a willingness to grind hard — even against the best grinder in tennis.
It’s not easy changing a big-hitting personality into a patient player. The mind might be willing, but there’s a little bell that goes off in your head after the sixth shot that says, “I’ve got to end this point now.” It’s almost an addiction.
That’s what Stefanki and Roddick have overcome. When you can pick your spots to go to the power game, you become an infinitely better player.
Picking your spots means pumping up the aggression against Nadal but being smart enough to stay back against Tomas Berdych, who has a much less reliable forehand, in the final. Picking your spots means a willingness to get to the net, but not every time. It means knowing when to throw in a serve-and-volley point. It means controlling that impetuous streak that says, “I can hit this running forehand for a winner, even though it’s only a 10 percent shot.”
Roddick has that now — a beautiful combination of styles that he can incorporate when the moment is right.
It hasn’t been a smooth ride to this new comfort zone for him and, certainly, there have been some self-doubts since that U.S. Open triumph in 2003. “Any athlete who says he doesn’t have a ‘what if’ moment probably isn’t being too honest with you,” Roddick said.
After he lost in the second round at Wimbledon in 2008 to Janko Tipsarevic, playing wimp tennis down the stretch of the final, fourth set, there was some negative thinking.
“I openly talked to Brook (soon-to-be wife Brooklyn Decker) and wondered if the best of it was gone,” Roddick explained. “I didn’t know. I honestly didn’t know. But I knew there was a way to find out, and that was to kind of go back to the drawing board and give myself every opportunity to succeed. Luckily, that’s given me some good days.”
After taking Federer to the wall, losing an excruciatingly long fifth set in the Wimbledon final last year and after the way he’s played this year, Roddick will be one of the favorites at the All England Club. On fast surfaces, he’s earned the right to be mentioned in the same sentence with Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray. He’s no longer, “Oh, and maybe Roddick could be a spoiler.”
But, first, there is the clay season, which is underway today. It appears that Roddick will play only Madrid (May 9) and possibly the team event at Dussendorf the week before the French Open as preparation for Roland Garros, and though he has had some success on clay, it’s not his best surface.
He’ll spend the next month getting his body ready for the special rigors of playing on dirt and he’ll be bouyed by his best-ever fourth-round finish at the French a year ago.
He’s made a lot of changes in his game to get this far on the fast courts. Is there a reason he can’t make a major adjustment to clay as well?
Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com