Why Roddick will benefit from Connors

The final at the RCA Championship was the best I’ve seen Andy Roddick play in a while. Spending just a few days with Jimmy Connors made a difference. It was obvious he got through to Andy as he was hitting the ball as well as I’ve seen him hit it all year.

I thought he was extremely unlucky to lose the match against James Blake. In many ways Andy outplayed him, but James is obviously playing great and with a lot of confidence, and he played better on the bigger points. But I loved the way Andy was hitting his backhand, hitting it more aggressively, taking it earlier and hitting it up the line. He was also coming to net at the right times. He was coming in with a purpose and with confidence.

Look, if Connors can have that effect on him in five days, it could be a huge boost for Andy, no question.

I expect Andy to have a great summer and I actually said that a couple weeks ago. Obviously, the third-round loss at Wimbledon was a huge disappointment to him, but I think he bottomed out there. In a weird way it maybe took a little pressure off Andy. His attitude is positive and I love what I saw from him at Indianapolis, and I expect that tournament gave him some much-needed confidence.

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