After the glory days of American men’s tennis that saw players like John McEnroe and Andre Agassi rule the tennis world, the baton was passed on to Andy Roddick to take his country’s hopes forward. The 41-year-old didn’t disappoint, as he reached the top of the ATP rankings and even won a Grand Slam title during his career. However, he had one big regret despite reaching multiple finals on big stages.

Interestingly, Roddick reached five major finals during his career – three Wimbledons in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open in 2006. While he won one of them in 2003, Roddick suffered saddening defeats in the other four against the same opponent, Roger Federer. Thus, his pre-game emotions spoke a lot every time he came up against Federer in a Grand Slam final.

When Andy Roddick felt ‘insecure’ before his matches

Grand Slam finals can be a nervy encounter, especially if you are against Roger Federer. Ask Andy Roddick, who found the Swiss maestro against him in four of the five major finals that he played in his career. Talking about his pre-game emotions before the Slam finals, Roddick said, “I felt like I was gonna throw up. But like, I wasn’t like it, wouldn’t I, I would have hated it. Because I would have felt like I’m not good. Like, mine wasn’t like, it sounds like you knew the tennis was there. You just didn’t like the other stuff surrounding.”

Further, he went on to add, “I couldn’t have cared less if there were 12 people in the stands or 40,000 people in the stands. Mine was like I was insecure about like ability. Like I wanted to vomit because I’m like, I felt like I had to execute so perfectly. Just to lose closely. But it wasn’t, you know, it’s just so strange that you kind of share emotions, but like the reasoning behind it is just different. Like I wasn’t like I was good at being embarrassed.” 

Not caring about not winning “ten slams”, Roddick shared with GQ in 2023 that his only regret was never winning a grass Slam. “Had I won Wimbledon, I don’t think I would have one single regret. I’m not disappointed I didn’t win ten slams. I’m disappointed I didn’t win Wimbledon. You can have seven of them. I just wanted one.”

But Federer isn’t the only one of the big 3 that haunts his dreams. Even retired, Novak Djokovic and Roddick’s views on him have kept him in the headlines. During a podcast, he made a blunt admission about the Serb, which caught the eyes of the tennis world.

Roddick admits to getting ‘slaughtered’ for Novak Djokovic comments

In a recent episode of Served With Andy Roddick podcast, the American legend invited Lindsay Davenport on his show. During a conversation with her, Roddick opened up about the topics he feared to speak on his podcast. One of those topics was speaking about Novak Djokovic.

Admitting his feelings about speaking on World Number 1, Roddick said, “I know anytime I say anything nice or bad about Novak, I’m gonna get slaughtered. One way or the other, that’s a given.” This comment comes particularly after his views on Djokovic yelling, “Would you shut the f*** up,” at a heckling fan in Monte Carlo went viral.

Roddick’s comments in the past about Djokovic haven’t gone down well with the Serb’s fans. As a result, he has received massive criticism on social media for speaking about him. Thus, Roddick now tries to avoid bringing any of Djokovic’s topics on his podcast.