By Charles Bricker

Day 1 of the rest of Andy Roddick's career was in the books by sundown Wednesday, not quite two months since he badly hyper-extended his left knee in a second-round match against Stan Wawrinka at the Shanghai 1000.

Physically, he's 100 percent, and had no trouble moving in a series of two-on-one drills against coach Larry Stefanki and top-Indian player Somdev Devvarman, who came down to Austin, Texas, to fire balls at Andy and help get him ready for the start of the 2010 season.

There's a big difference, however, between his physical well-being and his touch and movement on the court. We're talking here about his footwork into his shots and his rhythm with the ball. No one in the Roddick camp is worried about that. Day by day, it will come.

Good buddy Mardy Fish, who has recovered from minor knee surgery, flew into Austin last night and he'll work into the training mix along with Devvarman, the two-time University of Virginia NCAA champion who in his first full ATP season finished at No. 127.

"Andy has no trouble running straight ahead or side to side," Stefanki said this afternoon. "There's no limping." And there appears to be no after-effects of the knee injury, which came out of nowhere on Oct. 12 and was bad enough to keep Roddick out of the World Tour Championships, won last week by Nikolay Davydenko in London.

The goal right now is to retrain Roddick's footwork and rhythm, and that shouldn't take too long. Two months off is a long time but it's not an eternity.

When he's ready to get drill specific, he's going to be putting a heavy emphasis on service returns, just as he did a year when he and Stefanki began this collaboration. Though Stefanki believes Roddick is a better returner than a year ago, the numbers aren't impressive. He has a lot of work to do on points when he's not serving.

* Roddick's first-serve return points: 26% for 53rd on the tour and well behind leader Andy Murray. In 2008, he was 28% for 35th.

* Roddick's second-serve return points: 49% for 35th, behind leader Rafael Nadal. In 2008, 48% for 32nd.

* Roddick's return games won: 19% for 48th, behind Nadal. In 2008, 20% for 33rd.

* Roddick's break-point conversions: 37% for 44th, behind Nadal. In 2008, 35% for 42nd.

Looking back at Roddick's 2009 season, his returning was better before Wimbledon. He was moving forward into the second serves, taking it early, returning with some risk with the mentality that it wasn't going to be lethal if he missed because he's rarely broken himself.

Roddick's prodigious serving (91 percent service games won), second only to Ivo Karlovic, means he can afford to be riskier with his returns, but he has to stay in that mentality and dump the chop and block returns that too often creep into his repetoire. Get a good look at a second serve and fire it back. That's the state of mind he wants to be in all the time, and he has to do it with more consistency.

"We did a lot of drilling on service returns in the last off-season and while we were on the road during the season," said Stefanki. "And I really believe his return is better. What Andy has to do is continue stay loose and relaxed on the returns, take it on the rise. When he has tension, he tends to play too safe. I want him not to think, 'This is my one opportunity to break in the set, so I've really got to take it.' He's going to have a lot of opportunities to break.

"His serve went off a little after Wimbledon, and I think that affected his returns. Yeah, I've looked at the same stats you've looked at and I don't think it's totally indicative of the year he had. At the same time, you have to look at those numbers," said Stefanki.

My view is that Roddick had his best season since 2005. He reached no less than the quarters of his first seven tournaments. He played 15 events, not counting Shanghai, where he was injured, and had one title, three runners-up, five semis, two quarters. That's 11 out of 15 deep into the draw. Only one title, but much more consistency than he's shown for awhile. And that performance at Wimbledon was the high point.

"I won't use the word 'great' to describe the year," said Stefanki. "But it was very, very good," even with the injury. "Rock solid."

Why has Roddick improved? Here are the salient points:

* Higher fitness level after some weight loss.

* Higher confidence in the longer rallies. He has never been as good as he is today grinding points, and that accounts in part for his best-ever round-of-16 finish at the French Open.

* Transition game. It's still a work in progress, but compare Roddick's work inside the service line today with even a year ago. He's a more solid volleyer. His footwork around the net is better. Most of all, his flow to the net from the backcourt is smarter, more technically sound. He's still nowhere near Pete Sampras, Patrick Rafter or Roger Federer territory in his flow to the net, but you have to admire his commitment to working on it, and that particularly factor in his game will only get better the more times he approaches.

Does all that translate into a second Grand Slam title in 2010? Of course not. It's no longer just Federer out there. It's Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and now Juan Martin Del Potro. But he will continue to be a factor at the three fast-court Slams because, unlike a lot of players who just sort of "play it out" in their late 20s, Roddick continues to learn.

Charles Bricker can be reached at bricker@tennisnews.com