By Lauren Lynch                 Photo Credit: Andy Kentla

(September 2, 2001) For his first time on Arthur Ashe Stadium and fresh out of high school, Jack Sock left with much more than a loss from 27-time-Arthur-Ashe veteran Andy Roddick. Roddick told him directly after the match to come and spend time with him at his home.

The crowd was likely torn by the up-and-comer and the former champion but both were being cheered for in a friendly match. Sock took away one of seven attempts on Roddick’s serve, hit huge serves at 134 miles-per-hour at the fastest, and more winners to his opponents at 42 but eventually experience paid off 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round of the US Open for the twenty-first seed.

So why is the World No. 555 Sock going to Austin, Texas to spend time with Roddick? Roddick invited as a gesture to paying it forward to the game and time spent with Andre Agassi.

“When I was coming up you had Agassi still in his prime, Sampras still in his prime, and people still wanted to know who was next. They still wanted to know who was behind Venus and Serena. That's going to be a question that's never satiated, I'm afraid,” Roddick said of the constant young American search.

He referred to his mentor; “Andre was probably my mentor when I came out. I didn't go to his home, but we were in Florida the off season in 2000 before he won the Australian Open 2001. We were together pretty much every day. From that probably three, four months when I was the No. 1 junior in the world, I think I was good enough to give him practice. You know, I would pull out of tournaments to go hit with him for a week just because you learn so much.”

“I certainly feel the need to pay it forward. This game has been great to me. It's pretty much an impossibility for me to do it. But as far as leaving it better than when you came, when I came it was the best generation that has ever existed in a country. But I enjoy having the young guys at home. I think I can help them. It's inspiring for me. You can kind of feed off of their hunger a little bit.”

Recalling his first time on Center Court at the US Open for a match in 2001 against Slava Dosedel winning 6 4, 6 2, 6 1, “I was pretty nervous…But it's just exciting. You know, I said before in an interview on the way out, I certainly think I always appreciate the chance to get to play out there. “

Sock said he found out via twitter about the match location and was full of joy, “I mean, obviously growing up as an American tennis player, that's probably the dream court, dream stage that you want to play on. To play against another American that I grew up watching was a pretty surreal moment… I was out there just loving every point, every minute of it.”

Sock has a lot to learn but is playing in excellent form for his young age of 18 years and Roddick says he is off to a good start and has natural talent.

“Serve's gotten a lot better. I think he's grown about a foot in the last year. His forehand's got some serious rpms on it. You can't teach that. You can't teach 135 in your arm. You can't teach the ball jumping off the court. So that's good. He's going to have to learn some of the subtleties in the game,” Roddick complimented.

Sock unknowingly agreed and said he was happy with his play, “I mean, I actually didn't feel that nervous. I thought I had a great start. Held pretty comfortably at the beginning. Had chances to break. I felt comfortable out on the court. Felt comfortable hitting the ball. Felt pretty good. But I think the experience on his part probably played a role in the big points. I probably played looser points. That cost me the sets, then the match in the end.”

Roddick is up to face a strong player this season, Julien Benneteau next and will be waiting for Sock to come down for some valuable one-on-one.