Around the time of the US Open, Andy Roddick finally admitted that he had been suffering a bout with mono.  Keen fans of tennis will recall that Roger Federer was afflicted with mono at the start of 2008.  He “only” reached the semifinals of the Australian Open.  That year was the duo surprise of Novak Djokovic upsetting Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga upsetting Rafael Nadal (the bigger of the two upsets given what an unknown Tsonga was).  Federer’s play in 2008 and 2009, despite being pretty good, was also up-and-down.  He was no longer the dominant player that won tournament after tournament.  Players like Murray and Djokovic were having success beating the Swiss maestro.

Andy Roddick is known for working hard.  He’s not the most talented player on tour, but he does work hard to be in the best shape he can be.  He recalls days where he just lacked the energy to do any training and wondered what was going on.  He partly attributes his loss at Wimbledon to Yen-Hsun Lu to this lack of energy, though he fought gamely and pushed the match to five sets.  By the time the US Open rolled around, Roddick was feeling much better, and although he didn’t do that well at the US Open, he had high hopes for 2011.

Although sports are full of people who excel when they are ill, usually, it’s a physical injury, though occasionally, one hears of stories like Michael Jordan, ill with the flu, scoring a flurry of points.   Pete Sampras once threw up in the plants at the back of the courts en route to coming back against one Alex Corretja.  To lack the energy to practice must be a blow to an athlete that requires training to keep on top of the game.

Andy Roddick is now in Brisbane in his preparation leading up to the Australian Open.  American hopeful, Ryan Harrison, is also down there attempting to qualify.  Harrison is the American wildcard at the Australian Open having beaten Jack Sock recently to serve as the wildcard representative.