Roddick To Skip Olympics - Idiot.
Andy Roddick made possibly the dumbest move of the year yesterday by stating he will be skipping the Olympics to play in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. That idiot.
His reasoning is that defending his title will better prepare him for the US Open. Apparently, Roddick hasn’t been paying attention to the tennis world for the last few years. He is not now, nor has he been, a favorite to take a Grand Slam title since he won the 2003 US Open. He hasn’t been in contention for a Slam title in years. Had he gone to Beijing this summer for the Olympics, he may have gotten a bronze which would be far better than another Legg Mason trophy.
However, I understand Roddick’s thinking, why go all the way to Beijing and face the likes of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Gasquet and the rest of the Top 10 and most likely come up empty handed? But, here’s the flaw in his thinking (I don’t actually think he does think), he can go to Washington DC, face a cartoonishly weak field and walk away with the trophy not facing one player who would seriously test him and his preparation for the US Open would be incredibly poor. Wouldn’t you rather go where the top competition is? Perhaps the tournament is paying him a bundle just to show up.
Sure he beat Nadal and Djokovic in Dubai but those results are few and far between. If he were to face Nadal, Djokovic and Federer in a Grand Slam, I wouldn’t like those odds for Andy.