We can't say this much, but we Americans could use a sports boost. Our World
Cup team got ousted by Ghana and left us all wondering why we invested so
much of our time in a game most of us care nothing about. A Northern Irishman
won our nation's golf championship.
With the summer settling, and the sporting events being few and far between,
it seemed Wimbledon might be the place to land our red, white and blue fix.
See, when it comes to men's tennis, we have one name and one name only; Andy
Roddick. He's the guy we root for because he's the only guy we are allowed to
believe in. A Grand Slam champion back in 2003, Roddick has put himself in
the position to win another big one so many times that you feel he'd
breakthrough eventually.
Sadly, tennis gives you just a few years to do so, and Roddick isn't exactly
in his rookie season anymore. A pro since 2000, the 27-year-old American has
only a few more chances at a legitimate slam to add to his U.S. Open title.
Wimbledon seems like the place it could most likely happen, but Andy lost to
a rather unknown on Monday in a year that saw a lot of promise.
This event was the last one Andy wanted to lose before he had to, mainly
because the draw seemed favorable. After 2009, it seems he deserves one here.
Andy couldn't get past Yen-Hsun Lu. If he would have, Andy would have faced
Novak Djokovic, a man that Roddick has taken down three times in a row, and
seems to be completely comfortable facing at this point in his career. After
that, Roddick would have most likely gone up against Roger Federer in a year
that he has looked beatable on all surfaces. An early exit at Roland Garros,
Federer nearly lost his first round match at Wimbledon before coming back to
win a five-setter. It took the nearly flawless Federer four sets in his
second round, and although he's rolled in the last two matches, you can sense
a letdown year for Roger. If Andy would have moved on to that point, it seems
that 2010 would have been his best shot at moving past Roger at Wimbledon.
The defeat all but summarizes Andy's career at the All England Club. He has
come in with plenty of game, but can never finish when he needs to. Asked
after his match if he would wake up on Tuesday pissed off, Andy looked at the
reporter, rolled his eyes and answered how any athlete in the world would
answer - "Of course I'm going to be pissed off when I wake up tomorrow. If
you got fired from your job, you probably wouldn't wake up the next day in a
good mood."
With that, Andy left the interview room disgusted, as he should be, after a
bad day of tennis cost him another shot at this great title. Andy is better
than the way he played on Monday, and had a great shot at advancing deep into
this tournament.
It's sad that we will have to wait another year to see if he can finally do
on grass what we've expected him to do. For the first time in Roddick's
career, it seems very likely that we will never seem Andy leave Wimbledon
with a smile on his face.
網址
http://ppt.cc/ewrG
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 118.165.218.71