There was a brief period, sometime around 2003, when Andy Roddick must have felt he was escaping from Pete Sampras’s long shadow, that he would be the American heir apparent, the next in a long line of American tennis players that had dominated world tennis since the early 1990s.

Little would he know that this was a brief respite in the coming storm of Roger Federer, then Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic.  Federer, however, was a contemporary of Roddick, someone close to his age.  As Federer stacked up the Slams, sometimes at the expense of Roddick, Roddick began to realize that he was not going to be the world’s greatest player.  He would have to scale back his expectations.  It had to be touch, in 23 meetings to have only eked out 2 wins.  Federer had Roddick’s number and Roddick knew it.  He tried things.  Serve and volley.  Hit hard.  Hit soft.  Each thing he tried was deflected by the mighty Federer.

He had his best chance at a Slam in 2009 when he, improbably upset Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick, and met Federer in the finals.  Roddick was expected to roll over easily, but somehow, Federer didn’t see Roddick’s serve that day.  Roddick held and held and held.  Like the previous year, Federer feasted on tiebreaks because he couldn’t break Roddick’s serve.  Then, deep in the fifth set, Roddick’s serve wavered and that break, that solitary break, was enough for Federer to claim yet another Slam.

At that time, Roddick had tempered his game.  He played steady ball.  He wasn’t ready to take big swipes at the ball for fear of missing.  He was reluctant to hit down the line, and this made his shots predictable.  But with his big serve and his steadiness, he generally beat players ranked lower than him at the expense of beating players ranked above him.

Today was a different Roddick, one that was finally tired of losing, one that was tired of playing passively.  Roddick would take a close set in a tiebreak.  The second set easily went to Federer.  Roddick, however, broke early, and clung onto this one break.  Federer, for his part, seemed to struggle to stay with Andy off the ground.  It’s rare that Andy keeps up with Federer, mostly because he used to play so passively.  He’s clearly spent time learning to hit harder again, being more aggressive, hitting shots up the line.

Federer had been the hottest player on tour, aside from Djokovic’s win in the Australian Open.  He’s won three titles this year (Dubai, Indian Wells, and Rotterdam), one fewer title than he won all of last year.

Up next for Roddick is the winner of Monfils and Monaco.

Earlier in the day, defending champ, Novak Djokovic beat Viktor Troicki, 63 64.