Sporting Life: much at stake for roddick

Unless the stakes are especially high, losing a couple of card games to his coach should not unduly irritate Andy Roddick, who at the age of 24 has already amassed a fortune exceeding £6million from prize money alone.

But the American’s ferocious competitive spirit is such that he will not tolerate so much as a single bad hand, never mind defeat in a more competitive athletic environment.

His losing streak against coach Jimmy Connors, another man not exactly championed for his ability to accept defeat with good grace, has begun to gnaw at the world number three.

“It seems like most things we do turn into a competition,” admitted Roddick.

“I don’t want to talk about us playing cards because it hasn’t been good for me this week.

“Well, I like playing poker. He (Connors) realised that’s a losing proposition there. We’ve been playing more blackjack. I haven’t been getting many blackjacks.”

There is little chance of Roddick settling the score on the golf course either.

“Every time I play golf, I’ve got to buy a new set of clubs,” he said.

“It’s not relaxing for me. I go mental. I don’t have the patience, and I don’t have the pants.”

Fortunately for Roddick, his win-at-all-costs mentality manifests itself much better on the tennis court, where he will attempt to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Monday against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Roddick’s battering-ram brand of the sport is not one for the All England Club’s Pimm’s-sipping purists but it has enabled him to set himself up financially for life and taste tournament victory on 22 occasions, including a US Open crown.

As yet it has failed to see him past his nemesis Roger Federer, who has swept him aside in 13 of their 14 previous meetings, and formed by far the greatest single barrier to satisfying his appetite for success.

Connors believes Roddick’s ability to escape from his game - even if only to lose a series of card games or wrap a couple of nine-irons around the nearest tree - is helping him maintain the psychological edge he requires to reverse that run.

“Andy gets away and does other things and takes his mind off the tennis,” said Connors.

“He relaxes in a way where when he comes out he is going to play.

“I was always more uptight and higher-strung but it’s interesting the way Andy goes about things in comparison. I actually kind of like that. I wish I could have done that a little bit more.”

Roddick will be steeled for battle against Mathieu, against whom he lost in their only senior encounter in Canada in 2005, and who has reached the fourth round with impressive wins over Radek Stepanek, David Ferrer and Ivan Ljubicic.

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