Andy Roddick is helping plan a big bachelor's party for his childhood friend, Mardy Fish, in Las Vegas sometime
late in the summer.
Fish is to be wed to his fiancee, "Deal or No Deal" actress /attorney Stacy Gardner, in late September, and he
and his Davis Cup buddies are ready for a pre-nuptials blowout. Fish will be the first among of his Davis Cup
team-playing buddies - Roddick, James Blake, the Bryan Brothers and Robby Ginepri - to tie the knot, so his
friends are planning on sending him off with a bang.
"I like his fiancee and I want to stay on her good side," said Roddick, when asked about the party plans.
America's top singles players then added that Fish isn't going to have any input on what is hopefully going to
"Stay in Vegas."
"That's against the rules - that's against guy code," Roddick said
Guy code also demands for players to give their best whenever in the field of battle. That's never been a
problem for Roddick, who has hovered around the top 5 precisely because he consistently fights so hard. But
that doesn't mean that his skill set is good enough to be wearing the heavyweight's champion's belt.
Roger Federer has worn that heavy, gold-plated accessory for four years now, and Rafael Nadal has strapped on
the silver as he has owned the world No. 2 ranking for 130 consecutive weeks.
Roddick has to be pleased about his Australian Open draw this year, because he's not on Federer's side on the
draw and, on a good day, he likes his chances against Nadal. Roddick is 1-2 against Nadal, and feels he can
attack and throw off his tireless stride.
"There's always excitement when you start the new year," Roddick said. "I like this event. It's one of the few
where you can map out four weeks to prepare for one tournament, where it's normally you kind of prepare as you
go and have to make adjustments dependent upon results, conditioning, so on and so forth. I kind of like that."
This is Roddick's seventh Australian Open and he's never reached the final, but he's been a substantial factor,
reaching the semifinals on three occasions. In 2003, nine months before he won his first and only Grand Slam
title at the Australian Open, he contested an instant five-hour classic against Younes El Aynaoui in the
quarters, coming through 21-19 in the fifth set. However, his legs betrayed him in the next round against
Rainier Schuettler.
In 2004, he fell in five sets to Marat Safin in the quarters, while in 2005, Aussie Lleyton Hewitt out-screamed
him in four sets in the semis.
The next year, 2006, was a forgettable four-set loss to Marcos Baghdatis in the fourth round, Last year, he was
red hot coming into the semis and was crushed by a zooming Federer.
This year could be different for the 25-year-old, or it could be much the same. Once again, he won a warm-up
exhibition prior to the tournament, the Kooyong Classic and looked in good form in his 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 victory
over Germany's Michael Berrer in the second round of the Aussie Open on Wednesday.
What was particularly impressive about that win was that it wasn't just because of his booming serves, crushing
forehands and knocking off-volleys, but because he won numerous scramble points playing defense. While Roddick
is a good athlete, light feet and horizontal movement have never been his forte, but during the offseason, he
went to Hawaii and worked hard with his head coach, Jimmy Connors, and trainer Doug Spreen, and it seems to be
paying off.
"I like having the option, and I worked pretty hard on fitness during the off-season, so I feel like my legs
are there right now," Roddick said. "And so a night like tonight where the ball wasn't moving, it was good for
me to have options."
Whether a power player like Roddick can win the Australian Open when the tournament's new surface,
Plexicushion, is playing slightly slower to last year's surface, the bouncier Rebound Ace, is questionable.
Fish, who is also dependant on being able to hit through the court, isn't necessarily concerned with the speed
of the surface, but how the heavy balls react to it.
Roddick feels much the same.
"I guess the simplest analogy is if you have a piece of sandpaper and it's grittier and you rub a ball on it,
it's going to get this way a lot faster than if I rub it on this [smooth] table. I think that's kind of the
effect the court is having on the ball. I think if [the baseliner] Nadal is playing [the baseliner] Ferrer, the
ball's going to get a lot bigger. But it's normally a welcome change when they say new balls."
Even though he's lost a number of heartbreakers since 2003, give Roddick credit for this: Outside of the
French Open, where he and the rest of the U.S. men are clay pigeons, he's been extremely dependable at the
hard-court slams. How consistent? In the past five years at the Australian, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, he's
reached the second week 13 out of 15 times, owning one Slam crown, reaching the final three other times, and
four other semifinals.
Roddick certainly comes off as a wisecracking frat boy at times, but he's almost earned his Ph.D. in learning
to navigate the tricky currents of the first week.
"It's about surviving," he said. "It's giving yourself a chance to play another day. I've gotten through
enough first weeks now where I know how to manage my way through it a little bit. You know, the oldest saying
in tennis, and the most boring to you guys is, 'You can't win it, but you can lose it in the first week.' But
there's not going to be a point in time where that saying isn't true."
Sometimes it seems like just yesterday that the hyper and enthusiastic Roddick raised his trophy at the U.S.
Open and grabbed the No. 1 ranking. There was so much promise then that he might be able to stay on top for
long stretch and grab multiple Slam titles. But then Federer hit his stride in 2004 and lapped Roddick. In
2005, Nadal came along and stuffed the clay-court season in his pocket. In 2006, the Spaniard remarkably
became a threat on grass.
Roddick has been playing catch-up ever since.
However, it is conceivable that the American can carry his momentum from the U.S. Davis Cup title straight to
the final. There is no one in his half he hasn't beaten, and if he heeds the word of his brother and traveling
coach, John, and gets a bit more aggressive from the baseline and starts to move forward, he could find himself
in the final.
Sure, he'll be a substantial underdog if her faces Federer, but as he always says, he'd like another shot. For
now, that has to be good enough.
"I feel pretty good physically," Roddick said. "Maybe the short off-season was beneficial to me because I
didn't take too much time off. I feel as prepared as I've been, and I feel like I'm hitting the ball pretty
well."
