Andy Roddick will always be renowned for being the highest-ranked American player in the world for the majority of the 2000s decade. The year 2003 in particular, will be the one he will always cherish and remember. His victory in the US Open turned out to be the last time any men’s player from the United States won a Grand Slam title. Moreover, to add to his achievements in the same year, he also beat his greatest folly Roger Federer at the Rogers Cup for the first time in his career.
Roddick completely dominated the ‘North American swing’ that year after a run to the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Championships prior to that. The former World No.1 won both the Rogers Cup and the Cincinnati Masters. And here is more on his Rogers Cup 2003 performance that made him immortal in American tennis history as he beat the then Wimbledon champion, Roger Federer in the semi-finals.
When Andy Roddick finally broke the Roger Federer duck in Canada
Prior to the Rogers Cup, Roger Federer had beaten Andy Roddick in all their four previous meetings, which included the Wimbledon 2003 semi-final. The Swiss maestro’s all-round game worked on carpet and grass extremely well as compared to Roddick’s, which was more on having a powerful serve and attempting to engage the opponent in rallies. This made Federer the favorite to win, with the semi-final match widely considered to be the final before the final.
However, Andy Roddick aimed for rocket-like forehands and in particular, he excelled at playing the forehand pass on the run whenever Federer came towards the net and either played the drop or volley. The American won the first set, 6-4 after breaking the 20-time Grand Slam champion’s service game once. As expected though, Federer was not going to give up easily.
The elegance of Federer was on display as he responded to Roddick’s serves and forehands with backhands and impressive plays on the net of his own. Federer won the second set, 6-3. It all came down to the final set and both players managed to more or less hold on to their serves, which meant that it was a tiebreaker that would decide the winner of the semi-final. And much to the surprise of many, Roddick took a 5-0 lead which was decisive in him winning with 3 points to spare as Federer made unforced errors which were uncharacteristic of him in do-or-die situations.
When Nadal followed Roddick’s footsteps in 2013
Andy Roddick will be completing 20 years of that monumental Rogers Cup title win, having gone on to beat David Nalbandian in the final. Winning in Cincinnati as well as the US Open, Roddick completed a US Open series sweep, becoming the first to do so in the 21st century. Roddick had ended that year as the World No.1, despite losing to Federer in the semi-finals of the Tennis Masters Cup.
Co-incidentally, it was Rafael Nadal who emulated Andy Roddick 10 years later in 2013, the difference being though that the Spaniard won a whopping $3.6 million from the USTA. Nadal too had ended 2013 as the World No.1 courtesy that achievement, even though he lost to Djokovic in the final of the ATP World Tour Finals. He had beaten Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup.
