Roddick Clears The Air

If you have been following the Pacific Life Open for the past two weeks, you should know two things: Roger Federer defeated Tim Henman to win the title, and Andy Roddick did not step out of bounds. Making some headlines during the early rounds of the first Tennis Masters event of the year were Roddick’s comments regarding a Stanford basketball player. Apparently some signals got crossed. During a press conference, Andy had an opportunity to clear the air. Andy was quite surprised when he was asked about the media frenzy surrounding his comments. Either someone forgot to tell him about it, or as the case may be, he had not said anything to create such a stir in the first place. The questions simply was, “About five weeks ago you played San Jose. People were loving you. You were the cat’s meow. Then on ESPN yesterday you spoke of the leader of the Stanford No. 1 basketball team and the PAC-10 player of the year all-American as ‘the clown with the fro.’” Andy’s response was “I don’t think I used the term ‘clown.’ I said the guy with the fro.’” That was all that was available on the online transcript, but since I happened to be there in person, I caught the rest of the conversation. So here’s some of what you missed. Upon further questioning and a proposal to perhaps apologize for his comments, Andy was stunned. “Apologize? I said he was good.” The term “clown” was brought up once again, and Andy adamantly denied ever using the term in reference to Stanford’s No. 1. He even put his money where his mouth is. He challenged the reporter to review the tape from ESPN, and if he really used the term “clown,” he would give the reporter $100. Of course, Andy had another suggestion. He recommended that the journalist should perhaps invest in a box of ahm….q-tips. (Ouch!) So there you have it—or at least from what I saw and heard.