THIS is really the BEST I've read in a long time.
I've extracted out the bit of the interview that I like.
Check out the last bit about Power Rangers. HILARIOUS!!!
::: Interview extracted from www.cincytennis.com :::
Q. Do you feel a little like Phil Mickelson chasing Tiger Woods?
ANDY RODDICK: I think that's a good analogy, yeah, absolutely. You know, no one's going to argue that Tiger's the best player in the world, you know. There's no doubt.
But I think it's similar to what you saw from what happened with golf was it two or three years ago when Tiger won ‑ what did he win? ‑ I mean, seven out of eight or eight out of nine majors. That made the other guys better. That made Mickelson better, Singh, Els, Goosen. It made them elevate their games. I think that's what Roger is doing right now with tennis. I'm a better player than I was two years ago basically because I have to be.
Q. Do we have to start putting his excellence into some sort of historical context, or have we already started doing that?
ANDY RODDICK: If you haven't, you should. I don't think he gets his fair shake because he's not American, especially over here with the media over here. And he's not like Yao Ming who plays his entire season here.
I actually had this conversation with MikeWilbon a couple weeks ago in D.C. He was like, "Why haven't people taken to him?"
He's not like, you know, he's not a story like T.O. where you're going to be all in this drama. He goes and does his business, he goes home. He's not looking for anything besides winning.
Unfortunately, that hasn't been embraced, you know. It's almost like people want more of a story and, you know, the guy just wins and goes about his business. He's a class act. I mean, for some reason, that's not a good story.
Q. You mentioned on court about his off‑the‑court activity and kind of the same thing, class act. Can you expand on that, being I guess an ambassador to the game.
ANDY RODDICK: Well, it's, I mean ‑‑ he doesn't act high‑and‑mighty in the locker room. He's done a bunch of stuff like we did earlier in the year, he organized an event in Palm Springs where he got all the top players together, you know, for a benefit, benefit charity. You know, get everybody on the same page.
You know, like I said, he just comes and does his job, lives a kind of very quiet existence, doesn't try to ‑‑ I don't know. I mean, he just goes about things and does things the right way.
Q. James Blake mentioned after he lost to Roger that when he was injured, Roger was the first one to send him a note saying come back, we miss you at the tournaments. He has that quiet...
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, exactly. I mean, he's a real person. You know, he's not ‑‑ I don't know how to explain it. He's not an enigma. Off the court he's not trying to be somebody he's not. If you met him at McDonald's and you didn't know who he was, you would have no idea that he's one of the best athletes in the world.
Q. You added a volley to your game trying to kind of expand everything. What else would you like to have for yourself to get to that next level?
ANDY RODDICK: I think first and foremost, I mean, if you're asking just against Roger, I think the biggest thing is I haven't had an amazing serving day against him, not like I did yesterday against Lleyton; I put in 24 aces. I've played well against Roger from the baseline before. I've played well, but I haven't had that monster serving day. And, you know, that's what I'm looking for. My percentages have been low. Me putting my serve in the court has nothing to do with the way he returns; I'm in total control of that. That's been a little frustrating. I think that's a big key.
Q. What about in general, anything else?
ANDY RODDICK: I'm working on it. I've become a better athlete in the last year. I've worked on my fitness a bunch, I'm working on my transition game. Obviously I'd love to try to keep returning ‑‑ improving on my return games. That just puts more pressure on guys.
So definitely there's some things I can continue to work on.
Q. I think after Wimbledon they asked you what you would do next time against Roger. You said, "Next time I may have to punch him." Do you have a Plan B?
ANDY RODDICK: Kick him (smiling).
Q. Your foot's hurting.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. Left foot.
Q. Is he the one guy that you are chasing? I mean, there's a lot of good players, but is he the one guy who you personally want to beat?
ANDY RODDICK: Well, I think he's the guy that all of us are chasing, you know. I think there's ‑‑ he's the main guy and then there's probably four or five of us that are ‑‑ I don't know. Maybe we need to do just a tag team effort or something, join forces, you know, like Power Rangers or something.
But I think he's that one guy that we're chasing.
**************
I think this Power Rangers will be Roddick's quote of the year!
It just surpassed his punch and kitchen sink quote.
Damn it's funny.
Maybe someday he will defeat Federer with his Power Ranger tag team......
Roddick definitely has a lovable character and at least he verified my point about the narcisstic nation.
See?
I wasn't just being a bitch.
An American himself justified what I said.
Ha!
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