Andy Roddick Announces His Retirement

The 2012 U.S. Open is underway and I was all prepared to talk about who I like - both tennis-wise and outfit-wise. But Andy Roddick announced that he will be retiring at the end of this U.S. Open and so that's what I want to talk about.

I turned on the TV last night to watch the Open and there was Andy discussing his retirement in a press conference. It was his 30th birthday yesterday, not really old but getting up there in tennis years, and he said he'd been thinking about retiring for several months so I guess the U.S. Open just seemed like a good time to say good-bye.

It feels like the hopes and expectations for American men's tennis have rested on Andy's shoulders for quite some time. I'm sure that's a heavy burden. Lord knows I kept hoping he would  win just one more Slam. Anyway, here are a few Roddick stats that show how great a player he is:

• Roddick won the 2003 U.S. Open beating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final 6-3, 7-6, 6-3
• He was the runner-up in 4 Slams - in 2004, 2005 and 2009 he lost the Wimbledon final and in 2006 he lost the U.S. Open final, losing all 4 times to Roger Federer
• He held the record for fastest serve for a 155 mph serve he hit in 2004 (this record stood until 2011 when it was broken by Ivo Karlovic who hit a 156 mph serve)
• Roddick held the ATP's No. 1 spot for 13 weeks in 2003 and was the youngest American to hold the spot at year-end at the age of 21 years, 3 months
• He won 33 Davis Cup matches for the U.S. and led the U.S. team to Davis Cup victory in 2007

There are plenty of other stats I could throw out there. But the one thing I've always liked most about Roddick is how hard he has worked at tennis. You can tell that for him - it's a serious job that he puts his all into.

Andy is scheduled to play Bernard Tomic tonight and I'm sure the New York crowd will be going wild in support of Roddick. I wouldn't want to be Bernard Tomic tonight.  Especially not if he beats Andy.

Finally, in honor of Andy, I'm posting my favorite Roddick pic ever:

Whether you like this guy or not, you gotta love this photo!



© Kim Selzman 2012 All Rights Reserved

Olympic Tennis Fix: Tennis Team USA!

With the Olympics now just days away, let's take a look at who made it to Team USA!

We'll start with the women who are coached by Mary Joe Fernandez, herself an Olympic medalist (winning gold twice, in doubles in 1992 and 1996, and bronze in singles in 1992). In singles, the ladies, pictured above, will be playing: Serena Williams, Christina McHale, Varvara Lepchenko and Venus Williams. In women's doubles, the Williams sisters will team up and the No. 1 ranked team of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond will be playing. Good to know about these ladies:

• This will be Venus's fourth time to compete in the Olympics! She won singles and doubles gold in Sydney in 2000 and doubles gold with Serena in Beijing in 2008.
• If Serena wins gold, she will be the only female to have won all four Slams plus Olympic gold in singles and doubles.
• Venus and Serena just won doubles at Wimbledon. They only team up for the Slams. They will be going for their third doubles gold medal.
• Huber and Raymond lost to the Williams sisters in the semis at Wimbledon. Hopefully we'll see an all-American doubles final! 
• Varvara Lepchenko switched her citizenship from Uzbekistan to the United States in 2007. This is her first year to break into the WTA's Top 100.
• Christina McHale is 20 years-old, is currently ranked at No. 26, and has one win over a No. 1 player, beating top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in 2011.

For the men, playing singles will be Andy Roddick, John Isner, Ryan Harrison and Donald Young. Mike and Bob Bryan will field one of the doubles teams. The other will be Roddick and Isner. What to know about these guys:

• Roddick last appeared at the Olympics in Athens in 2004.
• This will be the first time at the Olympics for Isner, Harrison and Young.
• The Bryan Brothers won doubles bronze in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. (Gold went to Switzerland's Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka. Silver to Sweden's Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson.)

I'm thinking the American women look really strong. The men - less so. But its the Olympics so you never know what will happen. I'd love to see Roddick bring home a medal.

As for mixed doubles, those teams haven't been announced yet. I'm guessing the two teams will look like this: one of the Bryan Brothers teamed up with Serena and the other with Liezel. Since tennis play starts this coming Saturday, I think we'll be hearing that announcement very soon.


© Kim Selzman 2012 All Rights Reserved

Olympic Tennis Fix: Getting Ready For London!

As of today, the 2012 Summer Olympic Games are only 5 months away. Since tennis is part of the world's greatest celebration of sports, I want to make sure we're all prepped and ready when the first match is played. So consider this Post No. 1 in the Tennis Fixation "Olympic Tennis Fix" series.

This year's Olympic games will be centered in London, England. Tennis, however, will be played just outside London in the small, quaint and well-known town of Wimbledon, home to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (see the pic above) where one of our favorite Slams takes place. The Olympic matches will take place just three weeks after the conclusion of Wimbledon so I'm sure there will be plenty of people working long and hard hours to get the courts back into shape for the Olympics.

So here is your fun Olympic Tennis Fix fact: for the first time since 1924, mixed doubles will be an official Olympic event! The last gold medal in mixed doubles was won in 1924 by the United States team of Hazel Wightman and R. Norris Williams. While there was a rumor floating around that Andy Roddick and Serena Williams were going to team up for the U.S. in 2012, I'm not sure where that idea went. We'll see what happens as the Games get closer since the prestige of winning Gold at the Olympics seems to trail only slightly behind winning a Slam in the wonderful world of pro tennis.



© Kim Selzman 2012 All Rights Reserved

Spain Absolutely Beats US In Davis Cup

Spain's Davis Cup Team Celebrates Ferrer's Victory

What an incredible weekend for tennis! I just got back from Austin where I was one of the lucky 18,000-ish fans who got to witness Spain's decisive victory over the United States in Davis Cup quarterfinal play. And, as big a fan as I am of the U.S., I have to say - Spain deserved it. Those guys are incredible!

So here's my take on this weekend:

First, Davis Cup is AWESOME! I had no idea how intense this would be. Davis Cup play, where its country vs. country, is the most adrenaline-pumping tennis ever. I know - I've been to the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships several times and watched some major guys play. I've been to the ATP season-ending Master's Cup and seen THE major guys play. I've watched college tennis and I've been to high school championships. I've cheered my own team mates through some very tight, competitive matches where I supposedly had a stake in the outcome. But nothing compares to Davis Cup. This was more like going to a World Series game. Or maybe the Super Bowl.

Second, when you go to Davis Cup, you better be prepared to cheer and support your team. Because this weekend was all about fireworks, smoke machines, thunder sticks, red, white and blue anything and everything, pom poms, stunt-performing cheerleaders, a break-dancing American eagle mascot, a house band, a house DJ (!), lots and lots of flags - both American and Spanish, and, of course, face paint. At lunch on Sunday, two women proudly showed my husband and I their star-spangled five inch platform shoes that would usually look more appropriate in a strip club except that it was Davis Cup weekend so we thought they were fantastic.

Third, my new favorite player is definitely Spain's David Ferrer.  In the space of three days, the guy beat both of the top-ranked American men - Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick. And, having witnessed it myself, I can tell you - he kicked Roddick's butt. Andy looked like he was Ferrer's practice partner. Yikes. As my husband and I sat watching Ferrer's matches, we just kept coming back to one word for his style of play - scrappy. He's a relatively little guy at 5'9" but he is anywhere and everywhere on the court. There was never a time when he looked like he had given up on a shot - no matter how impossible it appeared to be to get to he always had an answer. Easy prediction - Ferrer will go way deep in this year's U.S. Open.

Finally, the Spanish team absolutely rocked. So they look like a bunch of male models to start with, which is pretty great all by itself. But they were so dang enthusiastic and excited.  Just for one example, Feliciano Lopez was supposed to play doubles against the Bryan Brothers with Fernando Verdasco on Day 2. But after his nearly 4 hour match against Mardy Fish, Spanish captain Albert Costa made the right call and subbed in doubles specialist Marcel Granollers for Lopez. However, not only was Lopez not tired from the previous day, he was absolutely coming out of his seat throughout the entire doubles match, enthusiastically providing back-seat coaching to Granollers and Verdasco from the sidelines. And Granollers and Verdasco, who had never ever played doubles together before, took the first set off the Bryans! That's the kind of stuff you talk about for the rest of your life.   

I LOVED my Davis Cup experience and really hope I get to see another weekend of that kind of tennis enthusiasm some time soon.

 



© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved

Top 10 Things To Know About Davis Cup Tennis

U.S. Davis Cup Team

I'm off to Austin for Davis Cup this weekend. Hooray! But the truth is - I don't know my Davis Cup rubber from my Davis Cup tie. And I'm pretty sure I don't know what a dead rubber is or why I should care about it. I just know it sounds like something I don't want to get within 10 feet of.

So, to make sure that both you and I can impress our tennis pals with our encyclopediac knowledge of tennis trivia and we can get this Davis Cup stuff straight once and for all, I've put together this quick and easy list of Top 10 Things To Know About Davis Cup. Give this list a once over and you'll know as much about Davis Cup as I do and possibly we'll be playing our own dead rubbers in no time.

1. The Davis Cup is the top international men's team tennis event. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and consists of teams representing their countries competing against each other in both men's singles and doubles.

2. The first Davis Cup tournament, held in 1900, pitted the United States against Britain and was played in Boston, Massachusetts. The United States won (yay!).

3. The tournament was initially called the International Lawn Tennis Challenge but soon came to be known as the "Davis Cup" after the trophy made for that first tournament, paid for by one of the American players - Harvard University student Dwight Davis.

4. Right now, there are four "groups" into which the Davis Cup teams are split. The top 16 teams are in the World Group and this includes the USA and Spain (which are playing this weekend in Austin!). The remaining teams are spread throughout the Zone Groups - the Americas Group, the Asia/Oceania Group and the Europe/Africa Group. Within each of those Zone Groups, are numbered groups with Group I being the highest-ranked teams and Group IV being the lowest. So a lot of groups - got it?

5. Okay - here's the part that most people don't get (including me) - the structure of Davis Cup play. The 16 World Group teams play and 8 of them win. Those 8 go on to play the quarterfinal, semi-final and final matches for the Davis Cup championship and are all guaranteed a spot in the next year's World Group.

6. The 8 World Group losing teams and the Zone 1 winning teams play each other for the 8 other spots in the next year's World Group.

7. Now, when teams play each other, those rounds are called "ties" and the matches played in a tie are called "rubbers." So a tie consists of five rubbers played over a 3 day weekend - two singles rubbers on Friday, doubles on Saturday and reverse singles on Sunday. Reverse singles means the singles players from the first day play again but they swap opponents.

8. A team has to win 3 out of 5 rubbers to win the tie. If a team wins the first 2 singles rubbers and the doubles, the third day rubbers are called "dead-rubbers." If those dead-rubbers are played, the captains may substitute in some of their lower ranked players to give them Davis Cup experience.

9. The format of play in a rubber is usually best of 5 sets, with tiebreakers played in the first 4 sets but no tiebreaker in the fifth - players keep going until one side wins by 2 games (just like Wimbledon!). In dead rubbers, teams may agree to play best of 3 sets with tiebreakers.

10. Finally, the winningest Davis Cup team is the United States!

You now know as much about Davis Cup as I do and we both know all we need to know for me to understand what's going to go on this weekend. I'll be watching the United States vs. Spain quarterfinal tie and, while I hope the United States wins their first three rubbers, I'd rather not have to watch dead rubbers on Sunday. But if I have to force myself to watch dead rubbers, I will (now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write). Stay tuned for more Davis Cup news!


All of my Davis Cup information comes from the Davis Cup website - www.daviscup.com - and  the Davis Cup Wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_Cup. Go to both of those sites for more great Davis Cup info.



© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved

Wimbledon Is Back! . . . As Is Venus' Appalling Fashion Sense

I am so happy that Wimbledon is on right now - I mean it's still early enough in the tournament that I can watch it almost all day long and every match is a great match. Like right now - I've got Andy Roddick playing Feliciano Lopez, Ryan Harrison finishing up his match with David Ferrer, and Maria Sharapova playing very young (17 years-old), very British and so very popular Laura Robson. It's hard to know what to concentrate on!

That's why I feel a little bit bad (but obviously not bad enough), that this, my first 2011 Wimbledon post, is about the appalling outfit Venus Williams has been wearing for her first two matches. While I don't want to talk about the same old thing that everyone else is talking about, this thing is so awful that I have to be sure my Tennis Fixation followers don't miss out on seeing it before she makes a possible exit out of Wimbledon. So here's my fabulous photo collage of Venus Williams in the first two rounds of Wimbledon:

Uncomfortable looking? Old lady-ish? Paper bag-like? Lace curtain-y? It's so easy to come up with everything that is wrong with this outfit that it's actually hard to settle on what the best (worst) description is. I'm thinking something like "tennis-themed-wedding apparel gone awry" might do it justice. The gold zipper up the front - trashy. The open "bat wing" sleeves - gawky. The whole "romper" concept - Forever 21 maybe? And I'm not even showing you the open, exposed back which is, in my opinion, just one "fashion" touch too many.

I believe Venus has fallen into the "even bad publicity is better than no publicity" trap and I wish someone would tell her she's wrong about that. She still plays great tennis but her tennis is no longer the focus of her on-court appearances. Why can't she figure out that, if she would sign on with Nike along with her sister Serena, they could probably make TONS of money wearing coordinating outfits and look fabulous while doing it? I mean even I thought those Oreo commercials they did were cute. 

At this point, my only hope for Venus is that she will have a new and even more inappropriate outfit for her next round so that I can add it to my "Venus Wall of Weird" that I am now seeing I need to develop.

Go Andy Roddick and Go Ryan Harrison!



Photos of Venus Williams via www.zimbio.com




© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved

It's Looking Like Davis Cup Will Be In Austin!

Apparently, Andy Roddick confirmed on the radio this morning that the July 8-10 Davis Cup match between the U.S. and Spain will be played in Austin! Hooray! I already have my hotel reservation! This seems like a good reason to re-run my favorite Andy Roddick pic.


© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved

Davis Cup In Austin (Maybe)!

You may know that the United States Davis Cup team (now captained by Jim Courier) recently beat down Chile, 4-1, in their first round tie and comes up next against Spain. And there is a very, very good likelihood that the next tie, in which the U.S. takes on Spain (think Rafael Nadal) will take place in Austin, Andy Roddick's hometown. The other two towns in contention are San Antonio and Albany, New York but those who predict these kinds of things are predicting that the powers-that-select-the-site will favor Austin in support of Roddick. This U.S. vs. Spain tie takes place July 8 through 10 and I am watching the news on this very, very closely because if its in Austin, I'm going. Come on powers-that-select - select Austin!


© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved

Roddick's Tennis Art Brings In Biggest Bucks for Charity

Well, guess who was the big winner in the ATP's "Art of Tennis" charity fundraiser? Not the usual suspects - Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. Nope, it turned out to be Andy Roddick!

While Andy didn't make it too far in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals (Federer won the tournament), the piece of art he created drew the highest bid, selling for $33,100! All of the money raised by all of the players went to benefit charity, with 50% of the proceeds going to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals official charity - Save The Children - and the other 50% going to each player's chosen charity. Roddick's is, of course, the "Andy Roddick Foundation." You can see Andy's handiwork in the pic to the left - not sure this is the look I'm going for in my own home but obviously someone thought it was worthwhile.

FYI - I did some looking on eBay, where these items were sold, to try and figure out who came out the winner of Roddick's piece. But I can't tell - all I can say it was someone who shops on eBay quite a bit as they have an eBay "blue star."

Here's how the art produced by the other players fared:

2. Roger Federer - $27,300
3. Rafael Nadal - $26,500
4. Novak Djokovic - $22,103
5. Andy Murray - $7,301
6. Robin Soderling - $5,100
7. David Ferrer - $3,350
8. Tomas Berdych - $3,001

My conclusion to all of this - Yay for Andy Roddick for beating everyone else at something for a change!



© Kim Selzman 2010 All Rights Reserved

Happy Birthday Andy!

Finally, the U.S. Open is here AND it's Andy Roddick's 28th birthday. Happy Birthday Andy! I hope, hope, hope this is the year Andy picks up his second Slam. I'm not saying that's likely but you never know what might happen. Good luck Andy and enjoy your birthday by beating the (fill in expletive) out of Stephane Robert today!




© Kim Selzman 2010 All Rights Reserved

Roddick Gears Up For Australian Open By Cuddling Koalas

I just thought this was cute - Andy Roddick cuddling with a koala in Brisbane. Read all about how Andy and his wife, Brooklyn Decker, spent a day with koalas, pythons and kangaroos as the Australian Open gets underway: ANDY RODDICK AND BROOKLYN DECKER CUDDLE KOALAS, PAT PYTHONS IN BRISBANE | GOTOTENNIS

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Wimbledon Wrap-Up

I'm still trying to recover from Andy Roddick's loss to Roger Federer. But what a way to lose! An epic battle that we followed on my Blackberry as we drove from the Grand Tetons to Salt Lake City. We were traveling up and down mountains and in and out of canyons so it was hard to keep consistently updated. We went straight from Roddick losing the 3rd to him winning the 4th to a tie in the 5th at 9 all! Somewhere in Idaho, we learned he had lost that 5th set and I just couldn't have felt sadder.

But I do love Federer and am happy to see him when his 15th Slam.

Well, the U.S. Open is right around the corner and hopefully, Roddick will have another incredible Slam showing. And this time I plan to be parked right in front of my TV to witness the whole thing and not in some crazy middle-of-nowhere-no-consistent-reception-on-my-Blackberry part of the country.




© Kim Selzman 2009
All Rights Reserved

Tennis Destination: Jackson, Wyoming

Vacationing in the Jackson Hole area and while hiking in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone is great, we're still playing tennis. How do you keep your eye on the ball with this view?

Andy Roddick takes the first set off Roger Federer in the Wimbledon finals??!!! They're in the 3rd now and I won't know the outcome until tonight. Come on Andy!

© Kim Selzman 2009
All Rights Reserved

Wimbledon Update: American Melanie Oudin Still In To Win!

So how does a 17-year-old unseeded qualifier mentally prepare herself for a third round match against No. 6 in the world Jelena Jankovic at perhaps the greatest Slam in tennis?

"[I] was just thinking that she was any other player, and this was any other match, and I was at any other tournament - you know, not like, on the biggest stage, at Wimbledon, playing my first top-10 player."

That's how American Melanie Oudin explained how she made it into the Round of 16 at Wimbledon yesterday. And that's how you have to mentally approach every tennis match you play (even if you're not at Wimbledon)! Good luck to Oudin in her next match against Agniewszka Radwanska of Poland.

And, BTW, Andy Roddick also advanced to the Round of 16, beating Austria's Jurgen Melzer. Andy remains as the last American man playing singles (no surprise there) and I would love to see him make it to the finals.





© Kim Selzman 2009
All Rights Reserved

Roddick & Fish Win Doubles!

I didn't forget about the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells that finished this weekend. Rafael Nadal beat Andy Murray in the men's singles final. No big surprise there. Nadal is just playing a different level of tennis than everyone else.

Vera Zvonareva beat Ana Ivanovic in the women's singles. Ana wore that same purple dress that I can't stand which I think is a jinx for her and she needs to ditch.

But the story I was most interested in was Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish winning the men's doubles finals. Roddick lost to Murray in the single's semi-finals so he made a great showing as a single's player at the tournament anyway. But in the meantime, he was playing doubles with Fish and they ended up taking out the doubles team of Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram who had beaten the Bryan brothers to make it into the finals! Fish and Roddick are now the ATP's No. 5 ranked men's doubles team! I thought that was great and when Andy Roddick is a highly-ranked doubles player, that can only mean good things for doubles.



© Kim Selzman 2009
All Rights Reserved

Good for Andy Roddick!

The top men tennis players are supposed to be in Dubai right now, playing in the $2.23 million Dubai Tennis Championship. I say supposed to be - Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer pulled out before the tournament even began with injuries. Andy Murray dropped out hours before his first match with a viral infection.

But the defending champion, Andy Roddick, is not playing for an entirely different reason. He declined to play because he disagreed with the decision to bar Israeli Shahar Peer a visa to play in the tournament. Amazingly, I haven't seen much about this in the news and it seems incredibly newsworthy to me (there is a piece on the San Francisco Chronicle's website praising Andy's decision). Andy Roddick is the defending champion. Andy Roddick is the No. 1 United States men's player. And it appears that Andy Roddick is the only top-level player with the guts to stand up for something that not only he, but many in the tennis world, claim to believe in. The difference is it's probably costing Andy Roddick a lot more money than it's costing me or anyone else in the tennis world.



Photo by Mark Humphrey/AP
© Kim Selzman 2009
All Rights Reserved