Andy Roddick withdraws from the Legg Mason Tennis Classic 2011 – Tennis News
On Thursday the former World number one Andy Roddick withdrew from the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, because of an injured Grade 2 strain, also known as the partial tear of the Oblique Abdominal Muscle.
Legg Mason’s marquee player experienced his second physical set back while practicing for the next week’s hard court event. Tournament director, Jeff Newman was disappointed to lose a player of Andy’s caliber and said, “We will truly miss him! He is a great competitor and we hope he recovers quickly and is back competing very soon”
Roddick’s last run was at Wimbledon where he qualified in the first round against Andreas Beck 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-3. During the second round he faced world number Victor Hanescu and won the match in straight three sets. However, he lost in the third round to Feliciano Lopez 6-7(2), 6-7(2), 4-6.
The current world number twelve is known for his extremely powerful serve and is ranked the second highest-ranked American after Mardy Fish. Roddick won his Grand Slam Title in 2003 against Juan Carlos Ferrero at the US Open, which makes him the last American player to achieve men’s single Grand Slam Title till today. However, he reached the finals at Wimbledon three times and the US Open once.
Additionally, four other players had also withdrawn from the Legg Mason event due to various injuries suffered. The fans were extremely disappointed to hear that Milos Raonic, Sam Querrey, Kei Nishikori and Lleyton Hewitt will not be able to make it for the event.
However, the tournament director, Jeff Newman was of the opinion that they still had a strong player field and said, “We are thrilled with our strong player field for the 2011 Legg Mason Tennis Classic, featuring two of the top ten players in the world in Gaël Monfils and Mardy Fish and both of last year’s finalists, with David Nalbandian and Marcos Baghdatis”.
Legg Mason Tennis Classic started in 1969; a major event of the Grand Prix Tennis Circuit until 1989. It was known as the Washington Star International and was mainly a clay court event. However, it was later resurfaced to a hard court in order to get more publicity the event is now one of the US Open Series of hard-court tournaments leading up to the US Open in September.
It is an ATP World Tour 500 tournament, presented by GEICO. The event is recognized as one of the top 20 events on the ATP World Tour and as a member of the Olympus US Open Series, the tournament offers more than USD 1.4 million in total financial commitment.
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