Apart from conducting super-hit podcasts, what does Andy Roddick do after his retirement? “I’m definitely more curious about the younger players. I try to keep up with the young Americans,” the American legend revealed during an interview in 2020. Seems very much like he follows the likes of Coco Gauff, Ben Shelton, and several others. While these youngsters have already established themselves as some of the biggest stars in the tennis world, Roddick has advice for these young guns.

Well, just a few days ago, Andy Roddick spoke about how players like Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz would’ve been good players even if they didn’t have access to great facilities and coaching while growing up. “Coco Gauff was always going to be Coco Gauff, in any system, in tennis,” he said. “Carlos Alcaraz, maybe Ferrero, expedited it and made him great. Carlos Alcaraz was going to be top 20 if a ham sandwich was coaching him.” 

He went on to shed light on how Emma Navarro, Ben Shelton, and Danielle Collins are the types of players who are thriving now because they developed a system that was designed to produce quality tennis players. Well, during the December 3nd episode of ‘Served’ podcast, Jon Wertheim, an accomplished journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent, asked Roddick to give his advice to young players who would come next in the tennis circuit and would deal with the “infinity cycle” of social media.”

“Surround yourself with people who aren’t scared to tell you ‘no’. That’s a big deal! Don’t make a bunch of new fast friends. Keep your inner circle very tight,” Roddick began.

After that, he spoke about how he used to travel with just his trainer and a coach but he “always used to stay at a separate hotel from my agent, parents, and the whole like orbit ecosystem that was there for me, I separated. So, it was my coach and trainer. We stayed there, we ate there. During the US Open, I’m not going to go to dinner with 27 people. I’m not going to do 10 people a dinner every night. It’s gonna be a 4 person dinner! The moments we gonna feel smaller than they’re actually is and that can be intentional,” said the former world number one.

Roddick has consistently shown support for young players like Coco Gauff, often voicing his concern over the intense media scrutiny she faces. His admiration for her is evident, and he even played a significant role in refining her service motion earlier this year.

Coco Gauff shares her thoughts on learning lessons from one of the best servers in tennis history

In January 2024, Coco Gauff’s ex-coach, Brad Gilbert, revealed how Andy Roddick stood up to help Coco Gauff in her serves during the off-season. He said, “It’s kind of full circle. When I coached Andy, I was his age now. Andy was like Coco’s age. It was a great two days. Really helped things out, simplified Coco’s motion, abbreviated a little bit.” After that, we saw Coco Gauff coming up with a statement claiming,

“He’s probably one of the best servers in history, and especially on the American side. So, yeah, I don’t think I could have chosen anybody — or actually, I didn’t really choose, he offered. So I don’t think I could have gotten anybody else better to kind of help me with that.” Gauff’s serve has been a hot topic of discussion in the tennis world for quite some time. In May this year, Roddick explained what Coco Gauff needs to do in order to be as good as someone like Iga Swiatek!

Well, according to his observations, the trio of Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Elena Rybakina have created some distance between themselves and Gauff. He explained it by saying, “I don’t like saying this because my fandom of Coco knows no bounds, I think she is an amazing athlete and amazing person.“

Roddick further added, “But Swiatek, Sabalenka, and Rybakina have separated themselves from her so far this year. Coco’s a second serve away from reasserting herself into that conversation. From where I sit the ball toss looks a little too forward on the second serve. I do think she will find it and she will be a dominant server.” What are your thoughts on Roddick’s special advice to Coco Gauff?