There were more roaring ovations, more “Let’s go Andy!” chants. There were tears and another nostalgic speech to the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd. There just wasn’t one more victory, but it ended right.
Adiós Andy.
After winning the first-set tiebreaker, Andy Roddick lost the next three sets to officially fall into retirement. It was a graceful loss as Roddick was beaten by seventh-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-4 in 3 hours, 15 minutes of spectacular tennis.
Roddick’s career ends in the U.S. Open’s fourth round, fittingly, as the last American standing.
At 6 p.m. Wednesday with the sun setting, Roddick sprinted wide of the doubles alley to chase a well-angled del Potro shot and belted a forehand deep in the last shot of his career.
Del Potro, who faces Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals, and Roddick hugged for several seconds at the net. When the public address announcer belted out del Potro’s name as the winner, the Argentine shook his head and pointed to Roddick and the fans gave him another standing ovation.
Roddick clapped into his racket and blew kisses at all corners of the crowd. Then he sat in his chair on the sidelines, covered his head in a towel and appeared to be wiping tears. Red-eyed, Roddick gave a brief good-bye speech to the Flushing Meadows crowd that had hollered for him for at least 10 years.
“It was perfect,’’ Roddick said. “The whole week has been perfect. Rain-delayed match, come back the next day. It’s like typical U.S. Open. I guess it was right.’’
Even tougher than keeping pace with del Potro’s powdered ground strokes was giving the speech without halting. His wife, actress/model Brooklyn Decker, cried throughout it.
“Since I was a kid, I came to this tournament and I felt lucky just to sit where all of you are sitting today and see the champions that have come and gone,’’ Roddick told the crowd, choking up at times. “I have loved every minute of it. It’s been a long road, a lot of ups, a lot of downs, a lot of great moments. I know I certainly haven’t made it easy for you at times. But I love you guys with all my heart.’’
Afterward, Roddick said he didn’t think he would get through it.
“It’s hard talking in those moments,’’ he said after receiving yet another ovation from the press corps. “Your voice gets a little scratchy. There are so many things I wanted to say but I didn’t have confidence in talking for a long time without dribbling.”
The match was delayed Tuesday night with Roddick up 1-0 in the first-set tiebreaker because of rain. Roddick came out on fire yesterday and won six of seven points to close it out 7-1.
It was the last set victory of Roddick’s career as the 6-foot-6 del Potro overpowered him with his effortless ground strokes and deep serve.
“I played really well until the second-set tiebreaker,’’ Roddick said.
Roddick lost the second-set tiebreaker, 7-4. The Argentine charged ahead 4-0 in the third set then got an early break in the fourth.
“Playing the last five games was pretty hard,’’ Roddick said. “Once I got down a break [in the fourth] I could barely look at my box.’’
It was poignant loss, since del Potro, who turns 24 later this month, is the type of young power player pushing Roddick into the sunset.
Roddick balked at summing up his career that featured more big Grand Slam setbacks than wins. Once ranked No. 1, he captured the U.S. Open in 2003 and never added a second Grand Slam title despite his enormous fame. He hasn’t been past the U.S. Open quarterfinals since 2006.
“You tell a 12-year-old he’s going to win 30-odd titles, be No. 1 and have a Slam, you’d take that in a heartbeat,’’ Roddick said. “Going back, I would have taken that in a heartbeat.”
As he faced his first “retirement” point, serving at 5-3 in the third set and trailing 30-40, half of Ashe gave Roddick a standing ovation. He belted a service winner to stay alive and closed out the last game he would ever win. The stadium was bedlam during the change-over at 5-4. Music blasted with lyrics: “I’m back, back in the New York groove.’’
It was over a few minutes later, but it wasn’t a bad way to celebrate retirement for Roddick.
“I’m probably not going to be opposed to a beer or 10,’’ he said.