Andy Roddick loved playing on the grass when he was in the midst of a wonderful professional career.
The American player was renowned for his big serve and passionate playing style, giving everything when he was out on the court.
He reached the final of Wimbledon on three occasions but remarkably came up against Roger Federer in his prime in all of the finals he made.
By the time Roddick’s career had finished he had won one US Open title and in another era, he would have won way more Grand Slam events.
Now, with the grass court season upon us, Roddick has claimed that the ATP do something that he simply doesn’t grasp with their scheduling.
What Andy Roddick has said about the grass-court season
Roddick is a brilliant tennis pundit these days and he’s a great ambassador for the game of tennis in the modern era.
As a player he always wore his heart on his sleeve – and it’s fair to say that he enjoyed playing on grass.
Now, he’s called on the ATP to slow things down and extend that grass court season – rather than rushing things as he feels they do in the current format.
He told the Tennis Channel: “I mean let’s just call it apples to apples, there are three Masters 1000 events going into Roland Garros that are spread out over the course of six weeks.
“You can play seven or eight weeks of clay court tennis leading into Roland Garros and then our biggest most prestigious event we rush everything, like I just don’t understand it.
“Obviously grass needs to be grown, it’s a more sensitive surface but on merit, it needs to be fair for different types of playing styles and I think grass court specialists have been underserved for a long time.”
Wimbledon deserves more build-up and Roddick is right
The Roland Garros final only took place three weeks ago and already Wimbledon is upon in just over a week.
Roddick is right to suggest that things are rushed with players being asked to play a number of warm-up tournaments – should they choose to – in such a short period.
Wimbledon is the Grand Slam that most players would admit they’re desperate to win just once in their career and it deserves more of a build-up.
The fact that players are talking about this suggests that it’s a topic worth discussing and clearly, the tour doesn’t favour those who enjoy playing on grass.
Roddick has made some very good points here and it will be interesting to see if any changes are made to benefit the grass-court specialists next season.
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