April 2006 Fan of the Month

Andy’s fan base stretches far and wide across the globe and this month we decided to recognise that by awarding the April Fan of the Month to The Andy Roddick Chinese Fan Club. Angela Yang, one of 225 members, sent in this fantastic entry:

“What I’m going to talk about here is not just one person but a group of people. Most of these people have never had the chance to watch Andy play live, yet it doesn’t prevent this group of people becoming great Andy fans. This group is called The Andy Roddick Chinese Fan Club.

It started with just a thread about Andy in the biggest tennis forum in China, the Club has now grown to an active organization with 225 members and a Chinese website dedicated to Andy (http://roddick.tennisonly.com.cn) Fans with different ages and different backgrounds come from every different part of China, but one thing that’s in common is that we all love Andy; both his tennis and his personality. Every time when Andy is playing, we always gather together on the internet and cheer for him with our hearts pounding at the speed of Andy’s first serve. Yes, sometimes just a scoreboard on the computer screen can make us shout ‘c’mon Andy’ as loud as those people who are watching Andy live.

Because of the lack of major tennis events in China, many club members are not lucky enough to watch Andy live. The Shanghai Masters Cup was a great opportunity for us to meet Andy. We drew up the plan for the Masters Cup in early June last year. A video featuring club members in Shanghai wearing ‘I love Roddick’ shirts was made. We expressed our excitement and hospitality in the video to Andy and wished him good luck. Members who are not able to go to Shanghai sent postcards to Shanghai along with their best wishes. We were hoping to give the video and the postcards as a gift to Andy when he came to Shanghai. Unfortunately, Andy’s withdrawal due to injury didn’t make this plan come true. While feeling extremely upset and also very sorry for Andy’s injury, we still enjoyed the Masters Cup and cheered enthusiastically for Andy’s friends, the Bryan brothers.

Andy has been an inspiration for us. So we realized just to follow Andy’s tennis doesn’t make one a true fan. We should make contribution to the society and help people, especially children in need, just like what Andy is doing. To ensure every cent we spent would go to the charity, the Club organized an event to purchase more than 100 No Compromise wristbands from AR.com. Since then, to wear a No Compromise wristband has been an identity for all club members. And the wristband definitely becomes a reminder for everyone of us that we should work hard, chase our dreams and help people around us.

The Club launched a Chinese Website for Andy few months ago. Everyone is working hard to get it more well-known publicly. Another event of purchasing wristbands from AR.com is under discussion. And we are definitely looking forward to this year’s The Masters Cup that we hope we will finally meet Andy and cheer for him.

We are very proud of Andy as he is a great tennis player and also a great person. And we will always be Andy’s loyal fans because what we believe in is AndyRoddickism.”

Any Chinese fans out there who aren’t a member of the Fan Club, make sure you visit their web site to learn more about it. Thanks again to Angela for this wonderful entry and congratulations to our April Fans of the Month.