Sports: Roddick reduces pressure

Roddick reduces pressure

By PETE NIEBUHR

Being the so-called savior of American tennis might be overrated. Just ask Andy Roddick.

Ranked No.11, he is 48-16 this year with two tournament titles, giving him five for his career. But Roddick, who turns 20 next week, has not won a Grand Slam event and started to feel pressure recently because so many have pegged him to be the successor to Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

"I'd always had so much fun on the court," Roddick told the Washington Post. "That was my thing, to have a lot of fun, interact with people in the stands and just enjoy myself during matches, during tournaments.

"But with all that talk, I started putting too much pressure on myself. I was rushing myself. It was driving me nuts earlier in the year. All of a sudden, I wasn't enjoying myself anymore on the court, and it scared the hell out of me."

The low point came at this past Wimbledon, where Greg Rusedski pounded Roddick 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the third round. Afterward, a devastated Roddick visited his brother in Texas.

One day, the two were hitting balls when it started to pour. They didn't stop, and Roddick said the experience was sort of an awakening in that it helped him remember his love for the game. Now he plans to ignore any savior talk and return to having fun.

"It works a lot better than freaking out," Roddick said.

Roddick, a five-set quarterfinal loser to eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt at last year's U.S. Open, figures to be a force when the Open begins next week. But he has not advanced past the third round of a Grand Slam event this year.

AD-VANTAGE WTA: The WTA Tour recently launched its first print ad campaign. Since mid July, ads highlighting the summer North American schedule have appeared twice weekly in USA Today. The campaign also will appear in select European publications this fall.

The first ad, geared to a younger audience, uses the theme "I'll Never Stop Playing." A second ad lists the top 100 players and includes photos of marquee stars.

OPEN DEBATE: The men's division appears to be wide open at the U.S. Open, but ESPN commentator Cliff Drysdale has three favorites: the top-ranked Hewitt, 2000 champion Marat Safin and Agassi, a two-time winner. He also said he believes Roddick, Tommy Haas, Roger Federer and Sampras can be factors.

"Hewitt is strong and seems to be as fit as anybody," he said. "But somebody could get him that first week if they can stay back and hit it as hard as he can. It depends on his draw, but he's not a shoo-in. He's not nearly as big a favorite as Sampras was all those years."

MORE PETE: Boston Globe columnist and NBC analyst Bud Collins said it's way too early to write off Sampras, 31, the 13-time Grand Slam champ who lost to Hewitt in last year's U.S. Open final.

"It's not logical to think he's through as a winner at his age," Collins said. "But I've never seen a great player suddenly fall off a cliff the way he has.

"I'm sure he's just as puzzled as the rest of us. He's healthy. He's happy. I can't explain it. I suppose Dr. Freud could."

LAST WORD: Legg Mason champ James Blake on becoming the fourth African-American to win a title since the Open era began in 1968, joining Arthur Ashe, MaliVai Washington and Bryan Shelton: "Any time I'm put in the (same) sentence with Arthur Ashe is very significant for me. It's just incredible. From my childhood, I was proud to say he was my role model. And now more and more, I keep hearing, 'You're the first one to do this since Arthur Ashe."'

-- Times staff writer Bruce Lowitt contributed to this report, which used information from Times wires.