The U.S. Open began with Pete Sampras’ tearful retirement ceremony. Sampras passed the torch that night and Andy Roddick didn’t drop it, winning his first U.S. Open yesterday in his first Grand Slam final 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 yesterday over Juan-Carlos Ferrero at Ashe Stadium.
Ferrero will be the No. 1 ranked player on the computer today, but Roddick is clearly the world’s No. 1 tennis player and should be for many tomorrows.
“Coming here when I was nine and sitting up top, I’m in disbelief right now. To be honest, I couldn’t have had a better day,” Roddick said during the trophy presentation. He pounded in 23 aces, with his serve absolutely unhittable in the second set when he didn’t lose a service point until his fourth service game. In two of the games, he pounded in three aces each.
Ferrero never stood a chance against this power. Jimmy Connors was on hand yesterday, inducted into the Court of Champions. Before the rout, Connors said he’d like to see Roddick use more “change of pace.”
Roddick didn’t heed the advice, going for broke on his serve and every forehand. When he broke Ferrero in the first set, he teed up on a shortball and battered a ferocious crosscourt winner to go up 3-1.
Roddick didn’t break Ferrero in the second set but destroyed him 7-2 n the tiebreaker when the Spaniard suddenly played meekly. Roddick broke Ferrero at 4-3 in the third set, then served out the match at love, pounding in two more aces.
Roddick showed no ill effects from his five-set comeback victory Saturday against David Nalbandian, who troubled Roddick more because he was more consistent. It’s a lot more than tennis skill that’s needed to be a multi-Grand Slam champion; it’s tennis heart, and Roddick showed that in his Saturday semifinal five-set comeback.
Facing a match point and down two sets, Roddick stormed to victory, sweeping three straight sets from Nalbandian.
“To come back from two sets down, match point, if he’s the athlete and competitor and has the heart that I think he has, that’s what you live for,” said Connors, inducted into the USTA’s Court of Champions yesterday before the men’s final. “To be in a position like that to turn it around and to come back, that’s what the game is all about.
“Anybody can go out and win 6-1, 6-1 and walk off and say I played great,” Connors added. “To turn around a match like that is beyond tennis. There are some occasions where tennis is almost secondary. It’s what else is involved in you, what’s inside you and what you can bring out that takes over and wins for you.”
Roddick’s meteoric rise has brought sniping from other men’s players. Roddick victims Ivan Ljubicic and Nalbandian both claim the Boca Raton basher gets favored by the referees in New York and is disliked by other players on the tour because of his oncourt antics. Saturday, in the cauldron of his five-set comeback, Roddick had the comic presence to run after a high lob Nalbandian hit out of play, take his cap off and catch it in his chapeau.
“Everybody has their own personality and their own feelings about what tennis should be and the way it should be played,” Connors said. “Criticism is part of everybody’s success. The way he’s jumped to the forefront over the past two or three months, criticism’s all a part of that. It’s the way you handle it that counts.”