For Roddick, Serve Was Not Enough
Andy Roddick suffered a disappointing second round loss at Wimbledon to the Serb, Janko Tipsarevic, one of our dangerous floaters at Wimbledon 2008. For Roddick, who depends on his serve to win matches, it just wasn’t enough. Roddick had a 73% first serve percentage, won 85% of his first serve points and 51% of his second serve points. In the end, Tipsarevic only won two more points than Roddick and it was definitely a very close
match. As Roddick admitted after the match, he played very badly on the big points including a couple set points. For example, Andy couldn’t win any of his eight break point opportunities. Nonetheless, the primary problem for Roddick continues to be when he doesn’t win a free point on his serve. Andy only won 58% of his net approaches on grass while Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal each won 68% in their last matches. Roddick was also not the player who hit baseline winners in the fourth set tie-breaker, it was Tipsarevic. Roddick’s challenge in the months and years ahead is that he needs to be able to win more points in the baseline rallies and return games. This has been Roddick’s challenge for a while and as he recovers from this loss and prepares for the U.S. Open, he must focus on finding his (old) aggressive forehand because he will need that power shot if wants to win a second U.S. Open title. A 73% first serve percentage wasn’t enough… again.
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