Andy Roddick battles illness ahead of US Open
Andy Roddick has withdrawn from the Rogers Cup in Toronto as his preparations for the US Open continue to be hampered by illness.
The American No. 1, who dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since 2006 in this week’s rankings, complained of feeling out of sorts following his 6-3, 6-3 loss to Frenchman Gilles Simon at the Legg Mason Tennis Class in Washington last week, and has not recovered in time for the Canadian Masters 1000 tournament.
“Following Washington, D.C, I was not feeling a hundred per cent and returned to Austin,” Roddick said in a statement on his website yesterday. “As of this morning, I still do not feel well enough to compete in Toronto. I am disappointed to be missing the Rogers Cup.”
There’s no doubt Roddick is disappointed to miss the tournament, where he was champion in 2003, but of even more concern is the timing of his current illness, less than three weeks from the beginning of the US Open.
After his upset loss to Cilic, Roddick gave a frank assessment of both the match and his physical state, saying: “It was just a bad night, I don’t have much of a defence for it and I don’t think you can defend it. I didn’t feel right physically or mentally, it was just a pretty bad effort.
"I feel pretty lethargic and not quite as excitable as I normally am so it’s something we might look into but I guess we’ll see. I felt pretty rough physically in Atlanta [where he lost to eventual champion Mardy Fish in the semi-finals] and then last week I worked pretty hard and here I just haven’t been feeling quite right so I haven’t been feeling well for some weeks."
Just how long “some weeks” is presents an interesting question, given Roddick’s unusually subdued grass court season, where 63rd-ranked Dudi Sela handed him a straight sets defeat in the third round at the Queen's Club and the relatively unknown Yen-Hsen Lu bundled the 2009 runner-up out of Wimbledon in a fourth round match that went the distance.
The question now though is whether Roddick can determine the reasons behind his current malaise and at least make some inroads to redressing the problem before the US Open begins on August 30th.
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