When he was 10 years old, Andy Roddick attended the Davis Cup final when it was held in Fort Worth, Texas.
The experience planted a seed in him that burst into fruition when he led the USA to victory over defending
champions Russia in this year's final in Portland, Oregon. "It's always been a huge priority for me," said
Roddick, who beat Dmitry Tursunov in the opening singles match. "It's been on my list of goals since I started.
I've been in that crowd going mental. Now to be the guy they're going mental for during a match is just, you
know, something you don't expect or ever think about or ever think will become a reality. That crossed my mind
a lot when I was out there. The expectations I had were pretty tough to surpass, and I think it did that."
It was an uplifting end to the season for the American, who finished in the Top 10 for the sixth straight season.
In 1992, when Roddick witnessed his country's victory over the Swiss, his father Jerry and mother
Blanche upped sticks and settled in Boca Raton, Florida in the interests of their son's tennis. Andy, however,
was not the directly intended beneficiary of the move. Elder brother, John, was a very promising junior (an
All-American tennis player at the University of Georgia, he now runs a tennis academy in San Antonio).
Andy, who juggled tennis with basketball in the early years, came under the wing of French coach Tarik
Benhabiles and started to rise through the US junior system.
In 2000, Roddick became the top-ranked junior in the world after winning the junior titles at Wimbledon and the
US Open. The following year, he became the youngest player to end the year in the ATP Top 20. But he had to wait
until 2003 for his real breakthrough in senior tennis. At the start of the year, he was involved in an epic
encounter with Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui in the Australian Open quarter-finals, a match considered by many to
be the greatest match of all time. The 21-19 final set was the longest fifth set (2 hours 23 minutes) in a Grand
Slam tournament during the open era. Roddick won the match but had nothing left in the tank for the semi-finals.
After tasting success in England at Queen's Club and reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals, he embarked on a winning
streak during the US hardcourt series and capped it all by beating Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets in the
US Open final. He finished the year as world number one, the youngest American to achieve the feat since computer
rankings were started in 1973.
Roddick holds the record for the fastest serve recorded in professional tennis, clocked at 155 mph (246 km/h).
He has broken his own record three times. In 2005, he earned fulsome praise for his sportsmanship. It happened
during a third-round match at the Rome Masters. Roddick's opponent, Spain's Fernando Verdasco, serving at match
point, hit a second serve that was erroneously called out by a linesman. The umpire announced Roddick the winner
and the crowd applauded, but the American pointed to a ball mark on the clay indicating the serve had been in.
The call was overruled and Verdasco went on to win the match.
In 2005, Roddick won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award of the Year after raising money for the survivors of the
Indian Ocean tsunami, auctioning off rackets and autographs to raise money for UNICEF and creating the Andy
Roddick Foundation to help at-risk youth. The Foundation has been one of his major priorities for several years.
"When I first turned pro I had all these questions I would ask guys constantly," he explains. "One thing I did
was ask Andre [Agassi] what he regretted. Of course I figured he'd say something about tennis, but instead he
said he wished he'd started his foundation even earlier."
Away from the court, Roddick also loves listening to music (e.g. the Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer), watching
movies and spending time with his friends boating on Lake Austin.
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