Andy Roddick sometimes had a very unique way of dealing with problems during his playing career, and he recently detailed one of those.
Roddick once famously said that he pinned Novak Djokovic against one of the lockers during an argument they had. Physical fights are not really common in the world of tennis, but that's one that was made public by one of the players involved.
Now, after his playing days, the former ATP's World No. 1 player seems to be able to reflect on some moments from his career with a distant view, and he remembered one of those during the most recent episode of his Served with Andy Roddick tennis podcast.
Throughout his tennis career, Roddick played quite often at the Houston Open, also called the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships. He won the inaugural edition of this tournament in Houston in 2001, and he also won the following year in 2002.
In 2003 and 2004, he reached the final, and in 2005, he added his third title at the tournament. In short, it was one of the most successful tournaments in his career.
In 2006, however, things didn't go that smoothly. The American player wasn't having the best season, and coming to clay courts, his least preferred surface, also wasn't something that would make his day better.
After beating Paul Capdeville in the opening round of the tournament, 6-3, 6-2, he took on Oliver Marach in round two. Naturally, Roddick was heavily favored, but there was clearly one person who didn't want him to win the match.
During a recent episode of his podcast, Roddick revealed the incident that happened in Houston in 2006, when one of the fans was heckling him during his match against Marach.
“Okay, so the hardest I've laughed, and it's, I'm going to preface it all the things you're going to say to me, I understand. It was immature, be the bigger person."
"I'm playing Houston one year at the Clay Court event there. So this guy, I go out for night sessions. This guy is just killing me the entire time, like just heckling me, and it's like one guy."
Roddick wasn't doing well on the court that day, and the heckler used every opportunity to get at him. When the American player swore, he was asked whether he "kissed his mother with that mouth."
"I miss a ball in the second set, and I say da** it, and he goes, ‘Oh now we're cursing’, and he just kinda goes in, starts doing the whole thing, and he goes."
"So, it builds and builds and builds, there's going to be some fireworks here in a second so, go over there and I say another word and he goes 'Oh you kiss your mother with that mouth?'"
Out of nowhere, Roddick was able to come up with a quick answer, responding to the heckler that he was kissing their mother, which made not only him but also a significant part of the stadium burst out laughing.
"And I say straight to a quarter of the stadium, I said 'No. I kiss your mother with this mouth.'"
Although Roddick ultimately won the match against Marach, 6-3, 6-4, in the next round, Tommy Haas bested him 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, in what was Roddick's last participation at the event, and also his worst result, as he lost already in the quarter-finals.
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