The Improved Andy Roddick

For many years, I didn't know much about tennis. I was interested in playing and I liked watching it on TV but i didn't know where to start. I was only familiar with a few professionals like the Williams sisters, Federer, James Blake and Andy Roddick. Obviously they were all very impressive athletes since they were professionals but every time I heard anyone talk about Andy Roddick, someone would always chime in and say something about how all he had was his serve. Andy Roddick does have the fastest serve in tennis and he is more of a power player than a topspin or slice player. This does separate him from a lot of the other famous players, besides the Williams sisters. In many of his matches he would win on his serves but fall short when the other player served and this gave him the reputation of "only having his serve" that made him good. For a while, I believed this to be true. Roddick would never win a grand slam event yet he had the most powerful serve in tennis. However, Wimbledon 2009 ended that belief. It seemed like a "coming out" party for Roddick as he displayed the skills and tenacity of an amazing player. He was able to control tempo, precisely aim backhand and slice shots, and volley at the net like a monster. I was shocked as I watched him defeat Andy Murray, not at the fact that Murray was losing but at the extremely high level Roddick was playing at. Roddick soon had to face Federer in the finals. If he would have beat Federer then that would have truely been a testimony to the new Andy Roddick. However even in loss, the match still showed how skilled Andy Roddick really was. He has been a new player since Wimbledon and he has potential to be a great tennis player.