Guardian Unlimited: Roddick watches one historic exit and races towards destiny

Sometimes important moments in British history are best viewed through the eyes of a foreigner - especially when it is as entertaining a cultural commentator as Andy Roddick.

The American spent the hours before yesterday’s routine 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 win over Thailand’s Danai Udomchoke marvelling at the televised coverage of Tony Blair’s exit from Downing Street. Blair’s decade as prime minister will be remembered by different people in different ways, but few will have the same take as Roddick.

“The funniest thing that I saw this morning when I woke up was, they televised the moving van literally pulling up, and they followed the moving van down the street when he’s moving his crap out,” said Roddick. “I think that’s hilarious.

“We need to get a moving van in the States somewhere. That would be hilarious. I think it’s pretty funny. I’ m not going to pretend too much to know about the political views of Gordon Brown - I think I’d be on the verge of ignorance if I touched on that any more - but I’m a big fan of the televising of the moving van.”

Roddick did some amusing of his own recently when he appeared on the BBC’s Tonight with Jonathan Ross, an experience he likened to playing a tennis match - though one he seemed to find far more intimidating than playing Udomchoke. “It was fun. I had seen the show before. I had heard his kind of reputation,” he said. “I knew that I had to come out aggressive. I was able to take that mindset to the stage, really follow through on the game plan.”

He did much the same thing against the Thai, who could not cope with the Roddick serve or forehand, the two shots around which the American’s bullying, pugnacious game revolves.

In the 11 months since he began working with Jimmy Connors, Roddick’s game has evolved in that his backhand is marginally less of a weakness, but it is the Roddick ego which received more attention than anything else. When he won the US Open in 2003 with the help of Brad Gilbert, now Andy Murray’s coach, Roddick was a strutting peacock of a player, an heir-apparent to American tennis legends like Connors.

When the relationship with Gilbert soured, though, Roddick’s self-belief dissipated. It required Connors, himself a player fuelled by ego, to build up his confidence again. Roddick’s tennis is now keeping pace with his celebrity, though he remains a good deal more entertaining behind a microphone than he is on court.

Roddick bullies a ball as much as hits it. Even when playing an opponent as unthreatening as Udomchoke, he struts around the court, twitching and grabbing at his shirt and shorts and glaring down the court at the opposition as though daring them to defy him. Udomchoke did no such thing, succumbing in 1hr 44min, during which the only resistance came in the third set when Roddick lost concentration.

Having won Queen’s this year and been runner-up to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2004 and 2005, Roddick feels entitled to talk up his chances, though the presence of the Swiss as a potential semi-final opponent should temper his bravado a little.

Click here to read the full article at Guardian Unlimited.