In 2008, Andy Roddick made an unusual decision.  He chose not to play the Olympics.  Roddick has always been a big supporter of the US Open Series, the group of tournaments played from just after Wimbledon to just before the US Open.  As an American, he has a huge fanbase despite having had his peak years during two of the greatest players in tennis, and then two knocking on the door.  He decided not to head to Beijing, hoping that a weaker field would lead him to a great summer heading into the Open.

Instead, it was a bit of a nightmare for Roddick.  He lost to Juan Martin del Potro in Los Angeles in straight sets in the final.  OK, so Roddick had no idea that a year later, del Potro would win his first US Open, or that he’d contend for most Slams up to that point.  Then, Roddick lost in the semis to Serb, Viktor Troicki, at Washington DC.  Again, he wouldn’t know that Troicki would (eventually) get decently better.  At the time, Roddick must have despaired thinking he was losing to lower ranked hacks.

He headed into the US Open lacking confidence and asked Patrick McEnroe, the Davis Cup captain, to be his interim coach.  He had been working with his brother John, and that hadn’t worked out.  Although he didn’t feel great, he had one of his better US Opens in recent years, reaching the quarterfinals, losing to Novak Djokovic, a match that ended in a weird post-match Q&A where Djokovic called out Roddick for calling him a faker.  The audience booed, Federer eliminated Djoker in the semi finals and went on to win the US Open over surprise finalist, Andy Murray.

Roddick would enlist the help of Larry Stefanki, who had been coaching South American players like Fernando Gonzalez and Marcelo Rios.  After shedding a few pounds, Roddick made his best run at a Slam in some years at the 2009 Wimbledon, beating Lleyton Hewitt in five sets, then Andy Murray in four sets in the semifinals, and then losing in five close sets to his nemesis, Roger Federer, for the third time in a Slam final.

Roddick would end up skipping a few US Open series tournaments due to an injury sustained at Wimbledon.  His 2009 season wasn’t that much better because he lost to Sam Querrey and eventually John Isner at the US Open.  Although he felt much better about his game, his US Open results were worse.  2010 wasn’t great because Roddick suffered mono through the summer, which affected his Wimbledon run.  Roddick lost early at the US Open to Janko Tipsarevic.  He finally got over his illness and went through his training routine and pronounced himself fitter than ever.

There was evidence of this right away.  Roddick reached the finals of Brisbane before a game Soderling knocked him off the court.

Since Roddick’s thumping from Stanislas Wawrinka, commentators have been writing off Roddick.  Indeed, some of the complaints came during the ESPN live broadcast, as Patrick McEnroe chastised his play.  Indeed, Patrick chided McEnroe after his win over Haase, saying his passive play wasn’t going to be enough to beat Wawrinka in a tweet.

McEnroe blamed Roddick’s passive style which has allowed him to stay in the top ten, but not allowed him to crack the top players.  Roddick did have a streak of good play in 2010 when he reached the finals of Indian Wells and then won Miami in back to back tournaments.  However, Roddick was a bit lucky.  Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and Murray were upset early in both tournaments.

At Indian Wells, Federer lost to Baghdatis, Nadal lost to Ljubicic (as did Djokovic), and Murray lost to Soderling.  Roddick beat Soderling in the semis, but lost to Ljubicic in the finals.  At Miami, Federer lost to Berdych, Nadal lost to Roddick (so that was a good win for Roddick), Murray lost to Mardy Fish, and Djokovic lost to Olivier Rochus.  In other words, as good as he was playing, except for the Nadal win, he wasn’t playing the best of the best.

Roddick found himself struggling at the Aussie Open to Robin Haase who was teeing off on the ball after tweaking an ankle.  Roddick has long since changed his style of play from the reckless player with the huge serve and forehand, but sometimes wildly inconsistent.  However, he doesn’t play like David Ferrer, who pressures players with his speed and his inside out forehand.  Ferrer may not be the hardest hitter, but he places the ball well, and when he gets a chance, he goes for a big shot.  Roddick rarely goes for a bit shot, because it’s not reliable enough.  Instead, he will attack the net, something he was loathe to do for many years, and in hindsight, should have developed much earlier.

When Roddick got crushed by Wawrinka, he blamed the court conditions.  It was cold.  It was at night.  The ball wasn’t jumping.  His topspin forehands weren’t kicking up high enough to move it above Wawrinka’s strike zone, so Wawrinka was teeing off.  Furthermore, the Aussie Open courts are slower than the US Open, so Roddick couldn’t simply hit hard and let the court do the work.

It’s tough to say whether Roddick is despairing or not.  Roddick was his usually surly chippy self in the post-match interviews.  He didn’t want to answer what he perceived to be non-questions pointing out the person had made a bunch of statements without asking a question, and even when he was asked about the decline of American tennis, Roddick felt that the reporter had already worked a slant on the story and so his opinion wouldn’t change his mind.  Perhaps all very true, but nonetheless, a bit snippy.

When asked if he was going to change the way he played, Roddick begged off, saying that he had to talk to Stefanki first.  He knew he needed to figure out a way to impose his game on slower surfaces, but much of that relies on confidence.  Even the more talented Murray has had to work hard to play aggressive tennis.  One reason David Ferrer beat Murray twice last summer was Murray’s unwillingness to hit shots down-the-line when Ferrer would pepper his inside-out forehands to Murray’s backhand.

In a way, this is not giving Stan Wawrinka enough credit.  Wawrinka has improved his game in the first month of the year.  He won in Chennai over Berdych, and has continued his success at the Australian Open with a win over Monfils.  Roddick wisely said that Federer would still be favored to win, but that Wawrinka was playing confident tennis and confidence can play a huge role in winning.

In the meanwhile, 2011 is shaping up to be very interesting.  There are players that are starting to regain the form that they had lost.  This includes Wawrinka, Davydenko, del Potro, and Gilles Simon.  There are players trying to move up including Dolgopolov, Raonic, Tomic, Berankis, Nishikori, and Harrison.  And the players above him don’t look like they are heading anywhere.  Soderling is playing well.  Berdych appears to be regaining some of his game.  Federer and Nadal and Murray and Djokovic are still playing well.

Indeed, Roddick fell out of the top ten here and there briefly before getting back into the top 8 by the end of the year.

I don’t think Roddick is panicking by any means.  He knows he can still play solid tennis.  But with fans wishing he could win another Slam, well, those days appear to be long behind him.  He would need a perfect storm of upsets, or some miraculous change in his game, and both seem unlikely at this moment.