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By
Charlie Bricker
It's about time to give Andy Roddick the
backhanded compliment he deserves.
His backhand has taken a lot of guff
over the years, as the one weakness in
his otherwise big-game repertoire. But
on Sunday afternoon, in a 7-5, 7-5 win
over Radek Stepanek, who is one of the
early hot players on the ATP World Tour,
Roddick's backhand was a key.
Yes, the serve was great, as it almost
always is. He was broken only once,
facing four break points, and his
forehand was powerful and nearly free of
unforced errors. You expect service and
forehand excellence from Roddick. But
when he starts playing backhands as he
did in this match, his game moves up a
full notch.
It was a deep backhand slice to
Stepanek's forehand corner that induced
the error that won the opening set. And
it was yet another aggressive backhand
return of service that set up the final
point of the match. It wasn't just that
Roddick was hitting one type of backhand
effectively. He hit flat passing shots
down the line off his backhand side. He
showed much better touch on his backhand
volleys, and his volleying overall. He
surprised Stepanek with a couple of
effective backhand lobs.
But what bedeviled Stepanek most were
those floating backhand slices to the
forehand corner. As well as Stepanek hit
the ball most of this final, he seemed
to lose all timing on Roddick's deep
slice. After a very solid two sets to
come from behind to beat Lleyton Hewitt
in the semis, Roddick was even more
effective in this match.
The indoor court at Memphis is not easy
to hit through, which meant Roddick
needed to show more patience and
definitely needed to step up on the
backhand side. He did. Good win and,
with a week and a half off, he'll play
his next tennis in Birmingham, Al.,
against a Swiss Davis Cup team that
isn't bringing Roger Federer.
There was one particularly amusing
"whoops" moment in this final. On court
after Roddick had won, one of the
tournament officials handing out the
trophies gave the winner's crystal vase
to Stepanek and the runner-up bowl to
Roddick. Stepanek took the microphone
after Roddick thanked the crowd, the
sponsors and everyone else and made the
switch, delighting in being able for the
first time in his career to be able to
hand a winner's trophy to a winner.
Charlie Bricker can be reached at
bricker@tennisnews.com
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