They were some of the finest moments of his career: Andy Roddick, playing in front of home U.S. fans, blasting aces and hoisting trophies at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments. The right-hander won five Masters 1000 titles during his Hall of Fame career, and at the prestigious events, he also scored some of his biggest wins.
Early in his career, Roddick knocked off one of his idols in Pete Sampras and later in his career, he beat one of the all-time greats who's still going, Rafael Nadal.
Roddick, a two-time Western & Southern Open champion in Cincinnati, talked with ATPWorldTour.com about how he beat Sampras in Miami and about which ATP World Tour legend he'd play in his dream Masters 1000 match.
Which ATP World Tour Masters 1000 host city is your favourite and why?
[Indian Wells] is great, being there in March in the mountains and everything, that’s tough to beat.
Which Masters 1000 title that you’ve won is your favourite and why?
Miami is very important, I was lucky to win that twice (2004, 2010)... I went to high school not too far from there, so a lot of times there were friends and family present, which is always fun, to perform and do your thing in front of people that mean the most to you. So Miami was probably the most important one for me.
Do you have a favourite off-court memory at a Masters 1000 tournament?
I probably do… probably not one that I should share right now.
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What’s your best Masters 1000 match win?
One of the Masters 1000 wins that was extremely surreal at the moment was when I was ranked 160 in the world and Pete was 3 in the world, and it was my first match on ESPN ever. It was my first match against Pete also.
I went out and won, six and three [7-6(2), 6-3 at 2001 Miami] and the whole time I just couldn’t get over it. I’m playing the match and I’m looking across and he’s doing the thing, wiping the sweat off the eyebrows, and he’s doing the little pump fakes with his serves.
I had to stay in the moment. Don’t get overwrought because you’re looking across at Pete Sampras and his mannerisms. I remember just repeating that to myself 57 times during that match, “It’s not Pete Sampras, it’s someone else. You just play your match.” And I ended up winning, so that was pretty special.
What would be your dream match at a Masters 1000 tournament?
I would like to play Arthur Ashe. I’ve been really lucky to play with, or at least hit tennis balls with, most of my heroes. And I’m not scared. I went up to Steffi Graf in '05 at Indian Wells and said, “I have to hit with you for 20 minutes.”
But obviously Arthur is someone who regrettably I never got that chance to do it with, so I’d probably want to play Arthur.
And where would it be?
Anywhere Arthur wanted to play.