Andy Roddick: Good Loser

If I had been routed like Andy Roddick was on the tennis court, I doubt I could have spoken this candidly about it:

After a 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 drubbing from Federer in the semifinals of the Australian Open, Roddick delivered a stream of deadpan one-liners and jokes that revealed a wry sense of humor.

He was asked what it was like to be on center court at the end of a Grand Slam semi in which he was sent packing in straight sets in just 1 hour, 23 minutes.

"It was frustrating. It was miserable. It sucked. It was terrible," Roddick said. "Besides that, it was fine."

Roddick was asked to explain the match starting from the point where the score was 4-4 in the first set.

"I got broken. Then I got broken three more times. Then I got broken two more times in the third set. Then it was over 26 minutes later. Is that what you saw, too?" he said.

Questions turned to Jimmy Connors, the former great who is now coaching Roddick and who the player had earlier said helped to boost his game and his confidence to the point where he believed he was ready to challenge nine-time Grand Slam winner Federer.

Reporter: "What did Jimmy say to you straight after the game?"

Roddick: "He gave me a beer."

What was Connors advice coming into the match?

"There was a lot of strategy talk," Roddick said. But, "It's not so much like, `If you're down 6-4, 6-0, 2-0 ...' We didn't really talk about that. Oops."

The performance is already available on YouTube. The good part of the press conference runs from about 40 seconds, for about 3 minutes:



My favorite line: 'My dad didn't raise me to run away.'

Hat Tip: Galley Slaves