Andrew Stephen Roddick (born August 30, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 13 weeks, including as the year-end No. 1 in 2003. Roddick won 32 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including a major at the 2003 US Open and five Masters events, and led the United States to the 2007 Davis Cup title. He was the runner-up at four other majors (Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open in 2006), losing to rival Roger Federer each time.
Roddick was ranked in the year-end top 10 for nine consecutive years (2002–2010), first reaching the No. 1 spot in 2003. Roddick retired from the sport following the 2012 US Open to focus on his work at the Andy Roddick Foundation. In retirement, Roddick played for the Austin Aces in World Team Tennis in 2015. He was also the 2015 and 2017 champion of the QQQ Champions Series. Roddick was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017. He is married to swimwear model and actress Brooklyn Decker.
Early life Roddick was born on August 30, 1982, in Omaha, Nebraska, the youngest son of Blanche (née Corell), a school teacher, and Jerry Roddick, a businessman. Roddick has two older brothers, Lawrence and John, who were both promising tennis players at a young age.
Roddick lived in Austin, Texas, from ages 4 to 11, and then moved to Boca Raton, Florida, in the interest of his brother's tennis career, attending SEK Boca Prep International School, and graduating in 2000. Roddick also took high school classes online through the University of Nebraska High School.
Career
1997–2000: Juniors Roddick considered quitting competitive tennis at age 17 when he had a losing streak in the juniors. His coach Tarik Benhabiles talked him into giving tennis four more months of undivided attention. Roddick finished as the No. 6 junior in the U.S. in 1999, and as the No. 1 junior in the world in 2000. He won six world junior singles titles and seven world junior doubles titles, and won the US Open and Australian Open junior singles titles in 2000.
2000–2002: Breakthrough In March in Miami, in the first round, Roddick had his first ATP level victory as he beat No. 41 Fernando Vicente of Spain. In August in Washington, D.C., he beat No. 30 Fabrice Santoro of France. Roddick played the Banana Bowl in the city of São Paulo and won, beating Joachim Johansson in the final. Roddick also won the Australian Junior Open, defeating Mario Ančić in the final.
Entering the pros in 2001 at the age of 18, Roddick quickly showed his promise when he defeated 7-time Wimbledon champion and world No. 4 Pete Sampras in the third round of the Miami Masters. Later that year, he dispatched then World No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil in August. Earlier, at the 2001 French Open, Roddick defeated a French Open champion, Michael Chang, in a five set battle in the second round. During the ensuing Wimbledon, he further showed potential by taking a set from eventual winner Goran Ivanišević.
2003: US Open title and world No. 1 Roddick's breakthrough year was 2003, in which he defeated Younes El Aynaoui in the quarterfinals of the 2003 Australian Open. Roddick and the Moroccan battled for five hours, with the fifth set (21–19 in favor of Roddick) at the time the longest fifth set in a Grand Slam tournament during the open era, at 2 hours and 23 minutes. Despite a lackluster French Open, Roddick enjoyed success in the United Kingdom by winning Queen's Club, beating No. 2 Andre Agassi on a final set tie break along the way, and reaching the Wimbledon semifinals, where he lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in straight sets. He avenged that loss in August, beating then No. 3 Federer in Montreal in a third set tie break. It is one of three times that Roddick defeated Federer in an official ATP tournament.
Roddick's hard-court record in 2003 included his first Masters Series titles—coming at Canada and Cincinnati—and his only Grand Slam title. At the 2003 US Open, Roddick rallied from two sets down and a match point in the semifinals to beat David Nalbandian of Argentina in five sets. He then defeated No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final in straight sets to become the men's singles US Open Champion. At the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston, he defeated No. 7 Carlos Moyá of Spain, and No. 4 Guillermo Coria of Argentina, before losing to Roger Federer in the semifinals. By the end of the year, at age 21, he was ranked No. 1, the first American to finish a year at No. 1 since Andre Agassi in 1999.
2004: First Wimbledon final Roddick's reign at No. 1 ended the following February, when Roger Federer ascended to the top position, after winning his first Australian Open; the 2004 Australian Open would be the only time in Roddick's career that he was the No. 1 seed in a Grand Slam. In April, Roddick again beat No. 6 Moyá. In June, Roddick advanced to his first Wimbledon final after taking the first set from defending champion Federer, losing in four sets. Roddick was knocked out during the 2004 US Open in a five-set quarterfinal against another big server, Joachim Johansson. In September, he beat No. 9 Marat Safin of Russia in Bangkok. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Roddick lost to Chilean Fernando González, the eventual bronze medal winner, in the third round. In November he beat No. 7 Tim Henman of Great Britain, No. 4 Safin, and No. 6 Guillermo Coria. Later that year, Roddick teamed up with Mardy Fish and Bob and Mike Bryan on the U.S. Davis Cup team that lost to Spain in the final in Seville. Roddick lost his singles match against Rafael Nadal, who would in the following year win the French Open. Towards the end of 2004, Roddick fired his coach of 18 months, Brad Gilbert, and hired assistant Davis Cup coach Dean Goldfine. Roddick finished 2004 ranked as the world No. 2, U.S. No. 1, and player with the most aces (2,017). In 2004, Roddick saved fellow tennis player Sjeng Schalken and other guests (including close friends Ben Campezi and Dean Monroe) from a hotel fire.
2005: Second Wimbledon final
Roddick's first 2005 tournament victory was the SAP Open in San Jose, California, where he became the first to win the event in consecutive years since Mark Philippoussis in 1999 and 2000. The top-seeded Roddick defeated Cyril Saulnier in 50 minutes, the event's first championship shutout set since Arthur Ashe beat Guillermo Vilas in 1975. In March, he defeated No. 7 Carlos Moyá. In April, Roddick won the U.S. Men's Claycourt Championships, reclaiming the title he won in 2001 and 2002. (He lost in 2003 to Agassi, and in 2004 to Tommy Haas.) At the Rome Masters in May, Roddick had match point in the round of 16 against Spain's Fernando Verdasco. Verdasco was attempting to save the match point on his second serve, when the linesman erroneously called the serve out. If this call had held, Roddick would have won the match. Roddick motioned to the umpire, pointing to the clear ball mark on the clay indicating that the ball was in, and the call was consequently changed. Verdasco went on to win the match. At the 2005 French Open, Roddick lost to unseeded Argentine José Acasuso in the second round, and at Wimbledon, Roddick lost to Federer in the final for the second consecutive year. In August, he defeated No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt at the Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati. At the US Open, Roddick was defeated by No. 70 Gilles Müller in the first round. Roddick's most recent US Open first-round loss had been in 2000. At the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, Roddick defeated Gaël Monfils to wrap up a tournament without losing a set or getting his serve broken.
2006: US Open final Roddick's first ATP event of the year was the Australian Open. There, he reached the fourth round, before being upset by unseeded and eventual finalist, Marcos Baghdatis. At the French Open, Roddick retired in the first round, after sustaining a foot injury during the match. Two weeks later at Wimbledon, Roddick was upset in the third round by British hopeful Andy Murray. This loss caused Roddick to fall below the top 10 for the first time since 2002. After Wimbledon, Roddick began working with a new coach, tennis legend Jimmy Connors. In his first event with his new coach, Roddick reached the final of Indianapolis, before losing to good friend and fellow American, James Blake. His resurgence finally came at the Cincinnati Masters, where he won the event by defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final, making this the first masters event he won since 2004. At the US Open, Roddick easily won his first two matches against Florent Serra and Kristian Pless. He then won a five-set match against Fernando Verdasco. Next, he beat Benjamin Becker, who was coming off a huge win against recently retired Andre Agassi. In the quarterfinals, Roddick beat Lleyton Hewitt, avenging his loss in 2001, in straight sets. Now in the semifinals for the first time since he won in 2003, Roddick beat Mikhail Youzhny in four sets. In the finals of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon a year prior, Roddick lost to No. 1 Federer in four sets. He then qualified for the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, where he defeated No. 4 Ivan Ljubičić of Croatia, but lost in the round robin to No. 1 Federer in a tough three-set battle, despite holding three match points in the second-set tiebreaker.
2007: Davis Cup victory At the Australian Open in his first-round match, he lost a marathon first-set tiebreak 20–18, but eventually won the match in four sets against wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Roddick defeated Marat Safin in the third round, Mario Ančić in a five-set fourth-round match and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals. His run was ended in the semifinals by No. 1 Federer, who defeated him in straight sets, making his head-to-head record against Federer 1–13. In first-round Davis Cup action, Roddick helped the US defeat the Czech Republic, winning his singles matches against Ivo Minář and Tomáš Berdych. Roddick bowed out to Andy Murray in the semifinals of the SAP Open in San Jose, California and then defeated Murray in the semifinals of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Tennessee, before losing in the final to defending champion Tommy Haas. Reaching the final, however, enabled Roddick to overtake Nikolay Davydenko for the No. 3 position, his first week inside the top three since March 6, 2006. At Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California Roddick beat No. 8 Ivan Ljubičić, but lost to No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the semifinals.
Roddick then retired in the quarters of Miami Masters against Andy Murray due to a left hamstring injury. Roddick helped the U.S. defeat Spain and advance to the Davis Cup semifinals, winning his lone singles match against Fernando Verdasco. However, Roddick re-aggravated his hamstring injury during the Davis Cup tie, and was subsequently forced to pull out of the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas. His next tournament was the Internazionali d'Italia, where lost to Juan Ignacio Chela in the third round. At the French Open he was eliminated in the first round by Igor Andreev in four sets. Roddick was victorious at the Stella Artois Championships for the fourth time, when he defeated Nicolas Mahut in the final. At Wimbledon, Roddick lost in five close sets to Richard Gasquet in the quarter finals.