Roddick To Regroup After Being Gored By The Bull
By Joe McDonald
(September 9, 2011) Andy Roddick can cancel his trip to Pamplona, Spain, because today he experienced the running of the bulls.
Actually, the No. 22 seed only got gored by one Bull today, as Rafael Nadal bowled over Roddick in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.
"It's tough playing a lot of matches regularly, but I had zero reserves," Roddick said. "I didn't have any time to train this summer, so playing a tough match like yesterday I felt ‑ I played a four‑setter yesterday; I felt like I played six sets."
"Came out today and I just couldn't ‑‑ you know, I was trying to push up on serves, and I felt like I was falling over as opposed to pushing up. Just didn't have much."
Roddick pretty much was bowled over from the first game of the first set. Nadal proceeded to break him and then cruised on to victory.
It's somewhat disappointing, though, as Roddick was playing some great tennis over the past two weeks. He looked like the player of old, who made the finals in 2003, rather than the broken down version, who was kept out of the summer tournaments with a leg injury.
"I mean, from six weeks ago to a quarterfinal and a top five win, I don't know if I thought I would do that when I first got this thing," Roddick said. "You know, when I saw the images and everything I thought it was optimistic at best. You know, thankfully last week I was able to play matches to at least where I was feeling the ball.
"I think it was always going to be tough for me to play that many three‑out‑of‑five‑set matches on no training, you know, pretty much just sitting around. Yeah, I thought that was always gonna be a challenge. But I felt like I did what I could from the injury. I feel like I gave myself every opportunity, and, you know, it was enough for a good result. I don't think it was ever gonna be enough to make a push, especially with matches stacked."
Now Roddick will take a few weeks off before he is scheduled to play two weeks in Asia and two in Europe to finish out the year. His schedule may seem light but remember he is still coming back from the injury and next year, he hopes will be much, much better.
Yet he hopes he can still finish out the year strong and even in the top 10.
"There's room if I put up a good result or two," he said. "To be honest, the way it's structured if I do really well in stacked tournaments, but if you do well in a 250 you're only allowed to count two of them out. I have to win to get 50 points.
"So I don't think it would change my schedule regardless if I'm still going for a 10th year in the top 10. I think it's the same schedule."
And that would soothe a bad day like today.
Olay!