Tears and cheers for Roddick's last match
8:49 PMBy Art Spander
NEW YORK -- The end had arrived, and Andy Roddick, tears in his eyes, love in his heart, was blowing kisses to a cheering, standing crowd whose desperate cries of support couldn't hold off inevitability any more than Roddick on this fateful afternoon could hold off Juan Martin del Potro.
In the seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Roddick's wife, the model Brooklyn Decker, was weeping openly on the shoulder of Roddick's longtime trainer, Doug Spreen. To the side of the court, Del Potro was clapping on the strings of his racquet.
Emotion was mixing with history.
A match that had started Tuesday night before the rain swept across the Billie Jean King Tennis Center concluded on a sunny but grim afternoon when Del Potro, younger, quicker, beat Roddick, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-4, in the fourth round of the U.S. Open.
Last Thursday on his 30th birthday, Roddick, who won the Open in 2003, announced when he was out of the tournament this time, he was out of competitive tennis.
He was retiring, conceding as much to injuries as age. He made it through three previous matches. But not through this one.
And as the forehands flew past and the deficit grew larger, Roddick began to think what the rest of us were thinking about, that this 55th match in the Open would be his very last anywhere.
That his journey as a tennis pro was moments from the finish line.
"Playing the last five games was pretty hard," agreed Roddick. "Once I got down a break, I could barely look at my box."
At his bride. At Spreen. At Larry Stefanki, his coach, the onetime Cal star. Or at his parents, Jim and Blanche, whose presence called down echoes of when Andy and his brothers were kids and being shuttled from tournament to tournament by their mom.
"This was all new to me," said Roddick later. "You try to keep it as best you can. I had seen most things that this game had to offer, and this was entirely new . . . It was fun. This week I felt like I was 12 years old and playing in a park. It was extremely innocent."
It was extremely revealing. Roddick said a week ago he could no longer practice as he must and play as he wanted. "I never wanted to coast," was his reminder. And he never did, not even in this grand finale.
The last point was a shot wide by Roddick, who walked bravely to the net where Del Potro, who will be 24 in a few days, embraced him in a brief goodbye.
"It was a tough moment for me," said Del Potro. "And for him also. Last point of his life."
Del Potro, the Argentine, won the title here in 2009 then had to undergo surgery on his right wrist, knocking him out of the sport for a while. In his next match, the quarterfinals, Del Potro faces the defending Open champion, Novak Djokovic.
"The crowd was amazing for both players," emphasized Del Potro. "I really enjoyed it that way, but it wasn't easy for me. I was nervous, but he made some misses. But anyway, it was an unbelievable match."
For Roddick, once No. 1 in the rankings, in 2003, before Roger Federer, before the injuries, before the tough defeats, it was a satisfying match, a match that he understood would be played over the years in his head.
Since the departures of first Pete Sampras and then Andre Agassi, Roddick was ordained to carry the torch for American men's tennis. It was the most difficult assignment imaginable. And ironically, he was the last American man in this Open.
"I would rather not have it that way," he said about his status this year, if not over the years. "I would have loved for a lot more of us to have still been in.
"But I never shied from the burden. It just is what it is. I understand we come from a place, which probably had more success than any other tennis country, where there are certain expectations. I feel right back at the end of the generation, so that was the way the cards were dealt. But as tough a situation as it is, in the grand scheme of things it's a dream. It’s something you want. That’s not hard.’’
Perspective. That's a word hurled around a bit in the world of sport. Roddick always had it. Why grumble about a life millions of others would relish? There's nothing worse than to hear an athlete griping about late hours and cross-country trips and signing autographs.
"I hear people who have some success," Roddick pointed out, "and complain about it sometimes. I don't get it. For every one negative, there are 10 positives. I don't think that's ever not been the case."
Roddick will go home to Austin, Texas, will help run his foundation and will pick up a racquet if only to recall the good times and great player he once was.
"There were a lot of tough moments but unbelievable moments. I mean, who gets to play in the Wimbledon finals, and who gets to play in an Open, and who gets to be part of a winning (Davis Cup) team? I said it a million times, but I realize the opportunities I had."
The opportunity we had, for more than a decade, and particularly Thursday, was to watch Andy Roddick play the sort of tennis that makes a nation proud.