Australian Open: Groundhog Day for Andy Roddick! - ATP-WTA-ITF-ETA modern tennis instruction, online video lessons.

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Australian Open: Groundhog Day for Andy Roddick!

Today at the Australian Open for Andy Roddick, the alarm clock rang at the hotel room and he woke-up as a tennisplayer finding himself living the same day over and over again. To be exact, he has lived this exact same day against Roger Federer no less than fifteen times!

Yes, the same breakfast, the same drive to the tennis courts, the same pratice warm-up routine, the same meal, the same talk, the same crowd, the same yellow balls, the same tactics, the same opponent, Roger Federer, the same result....defeat, Humiliating Defeat!

It must be a real nightmare for poor Andy to be lost for answers against Roger Federer at the Australian Open. Roger, who does not play much better than Andy, uses the incredible, repeated over and over tactical and technical mistakes from Andy Roddick to cash in on and win to the point that he, Roger Federer feels embarassed to make his opponent look so mundane.

It is indisputable that Roger Federer is a great tennis player, but let us look at this statistic on the service.

-------Roddick(USA)----Federer(SUI)

Aces ----- 8 -------------16

Fastest Serve Speed

----------224 KMH---------208 KMH

Average 1st Serve Speed

---------206 KMH----------188 KMH

Average 2nd Serve Speed

---------172 KMH----------156 KMH

Roger Federer with a far inferior speed on his service, manages to hit double the Aces of Andy Roddick who is problably the fastest server in the world. Amazing!

What does this tell me?

1. Federer is a much better returner than Roddick

2. Federer places and varies his serves much better than Roddick.

3. Federer disguises his delivery much better then Roddick.

What could Roddick have done to change this statistic in his favour?

1. Instead of hitting just slices which bounced perfectly in Federer's hitting zone, use the huge kick serve (he used to have when he first came into the global scene in Roland Garros) to Federers weakness the 'high-backhand' or 'to his body'.

Because Federer tends to get ruffled at this type of affront he will try to save his ego by showing that he can handle that with the topspin backhand. The result? Plenty of short easy shot opportunities in the middle of the court and more time to come in and take some easy pickings of high floating returns from Federer with decisive volleys.

2. Roddick should kneel down on his knees and beg John McEnroe to teach him the art of disguising a tennis serve, that would do plenty of good to his Ace quotas against Federer.

3. On the returns, to reduce the Ace quota from Roger Federer there is no way around it but get closer to the service line on first serves and do not allow any angles for Federer by taking the ball early.

On second serves get inside the court/baseline and exert constant pressure on Rogers second delivery which is a major weakness in Roger Federer's game. Unfortunately no one has the guts to exploit that, because half of the players will not know what to do after that. It is simple though, attack deep to the corners or down the middle at Rogers feet before he even lands from the service and come in! Yes, go to the net! Yes, plenty of easy pickings!

Lets look at another aspect of this match at the Australian Open; Speed, foot speed, stroke speed, mind speed. I know what you are thinking and you are right, Roger Federer is faster in all of these departments. But, this begs the question, if Roddick is slower in everything and needs more time to recover, more time to swing, more time to think, why in heavens is he trying to hit everything as hard as he can? To put himself out of play on almost every third or fourth shot?

Would it not make more sense for Roddick to play the ball with a controlled speed, deep and with varied spins including, slices (floaters), heavy and high top spin balls? This would reduce the pace of the game and at the same time force Roger to generate the pace himself and give more time for Roddick himself to recover and think more clearly?

What would be the results?

Roddick would have more time, his mind would be far more relaxed and clear and Roger would give him more easy pickings that Roddick could then selectively convert into winners.

Would this work better? Of course it would! Roger would hate it, because he loves things to go quick. A tactic of this nature executed consistently would have all of Federers feathers going into a frenzy.

You do not need Einsteins brains to understand that if you are slower than your opponent, you must bring the speed of the game to a level where you are in control, in this case, play slower and do not give pace to your opponent! In fifteen matches against Roger Federer, Roddick and his hoard of Coaches have not understood that!

Last observation: The approach shot and volleys.

What happened to American tennis?

Is it possible that the USTA and others with bragging rights to Andy Roddicks results, in more than 15 years of development of this young man, were not capable to teach him a decent approach shot or an acceptable volley under pressure?

We must all remember that the trademark of American tennis until the eighties was the serve and volley, the volley and the attack! That was the edge Americans had over almost every other nation except Australia. How could American tennis the USTA and American Coaches allow this to happen? Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzales, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and many others must all be shaking their heads in heaven and on earth at Andy Roddicks absolutely mediocre attacks and volleys!

The drubbings of Andy Roddick by Roger Federer at the Australian Open and other places are a consequence of irresponsible development of young tennis players by institutions who as we know earn millions of dollars if not billions of dollars in the course of the years and do not take a serious approach to addressing obvious flaws in a players technique.

Take for example, the volley, every run-of-the-mill tennis teacher knows that the upper body stays straight during and after the execution of the volley! Why in heavens does Andy Roddick systematically break-down, bend and lean forward at the waist for easy, middle to low volleys? With the utilization of video technology, super duper multi-million dollar training facilities and well-paid Coaches and Staff and no one gets it?

Is this familiar to you?

Well you are by know thinking boy Sergio, you are upset! Of course I am, I am sick and tired of waiting for a decent match between Federer and Roddick and all I see are walks in the park for Federer and another Groundhog day for Roddick!

If anyone is going to make $2 million at the Australian Open plus a bonus for winning it they should have blood, sweat and tears for it, don't you all agree?

PRIZE Money for Australian Open Men’s and Women's Singles

In Australian Dollars

1st Round

$19,400

2nd Round

$31,000

3rd Round

$51,000

4th Round

$88,000

Quarter finalist

$182,250

Semi finalist

$365,000

Runners-up

$1,000,000

Winners

$2,000,000

Enjoy the Australian Open!

Sergio Cruz

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