Roddick, Ferrero and Federer have plenty o …
Roddick, Ferrero and Federer have plenty of time to vie for top spot
By DALE ROBERTSON
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Associated Press
Juan Carlos Ferrero finds no joy in being the No. 2 player in the world.
Youth is served, and for Roger Federer, also volleyed.
Tennis' baby boomers, led by the biggest boomer of them all, Andy Roddick, have
loudly announced their intentions in 2003, and they seem fairly resolute. Altho
ugh 33-year-old Andre Agassi clings to a share of the power, his fingernails
desperately digging into the window sill, the ancien r嶲ime is, well, history.
It's Roddick's, Federer's and Juan Carlos Ferrero's world now.
The U.S. Open, Wimbledon and French Open champions, respectively, are the best
and the brightest of tennis' deep and luminescent new generation, and they lead
the charge into Houston next week for the first Masters Cup on U.S. soil in 14
years. The season-ending championship that will inaugurate Westside Tennis Club'
's new stadium boasts a typically staggering purse -- $3.7 million -- but it's
really not about the money.
CLOSER LOOK
ANDY RODDICK
Nickname: A-Rod.
Birthdate: 8-30-82.
Birthplace: Omaha, Neb.
Residence: Austin (as of next month).
Height: 6-2.
Weight: 190.
Plays: Righthanded.
Racket: Babolat Pure Drive Plus.
Clothes/shoes: Reebok.
Turned pro: 2000.
Prize money won: $4,811,999.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JUAN CARLOS FERRERO
Nickname: Mosquito.
Birthdate: 2-12-80.
Birthplace: Onteniente, Spain.
Residence: Villena, Spain.
Height: 6-0.
Weight: 160.
Plays: Righthanded.
Racket: Prince Graphite Classic Midplus.
Clothes/shoes: Sergio Tacchini.
Turned pro: 1998.
Prize money won: $8,906,110.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROGER FEDERER
Nickname: Federer Express.
Birthdate: 8-8-91.
Birthplace: Basel, Switzerland.
Residence: Bottmingen, Switzerland.
Height: 6-1.
Weight: 177.
Plays: Righthanded.
Racket: Wilson Pro Staff Tour 90.
Clothes/shoes: Nike.
Turned pro: 1998.
Prize money won: $6,218,008.
The kids have plenty already, with almost $9 million in career earnings among
them. Ferrero, at 23, is the oldest of the bunch. As a point of comparison,
Bjorn Borg made only $3.7 million in a career that saw him win 11 Grand Slams,
including five consecutive Wimbledons.
The dash will never be for cash for these wunderkinds, the first threesome to
score consecutive Slams breakthroughs in modern tennis history. Federer, 22,
still lives with his parents. He doesn't even have a rent payment. No, they're
much more into the pursuit of power and accumulating a wealth of important
titles.
The Masters Cup isn't a Slam, but it's the next best thing because the newly
crowned champion a week from Sunday, should he come from the emergent threesome
, locks up No. 1 status for 2003.
"It's pretty cool that I got there," said Roddick, who seized the top spot for
the first time last week in Paris two months after his 21st birthday. "But my
goal is to finish there. That's what I'm shooting for. I'm greedy."
In his job, you're supposed to be. Federer and Ferrero are no less consumed by
the pursuit of excellence, reflected in a man's ranking. Ditto the other emerge
nt forces-to-be-reckoned-with in the Houston field, particularly Guillermo
Coria, the 21-year-old Argentine who knocked Agassi out of the French Open,
and his 12-days-older countryman, David Nalbandian, a former Wimbledon runner
-up who removed Roddick from the recent Basel, Switzerland, tournament.
Also, presumably, we haven't heard the last of two players who won't be here:
the dethroned No. 1, 2002 Masters champion Lleyton Hewitt, 22, of Australia,
or Russia's 23-year-old Marat Safin, the oft-injured U.S. Open champion of
three years ago. Both are down, for a variety of reasons, but hardly done.
"There's just so much great young talent at the top," said Patrick McEnroe, the
U.S. Davis Cup team captain and ESPN tennis commentator who will be working the
Masters. "It's really exciting to see for those of us who get tired of hearing
how boring men's tennis is. They're all so close in age and ability, and they
'll keep pushing each other because they all badly want to be the top guy."
You've heard Roddick speak on the subject. Now listen to Spain's Ferrero, who
isn't the least bit pleased that A-Rod has supplanted him at the head of the
ATP Champions Race standings: "Being No. 1 is one of my priorities. It's the
first priority, the top priority."
Roger Federer's versatility has helped him make a racket on the court this year, including a title at Wimbledon.
Federer, a confessed -- but reformed -- tennis brat from hell, may be less forw
ard in his comments, but he appears to be no less resolute.
"I know I can win every tournament I play, no matter what surface it's on, as
long as I prepare properly," said the first can't-miss Swiss male his small
country has produced. "Now is the time to set new goals. I want to become No.1
next. I'm not going to push it, but without goals nothing happens in life."
None established his earlier than Roddick. As a small boy in Austin -- he's
moving back there after the Masters Cup -- he had a rebound net in the garage,
and he pounded balls into it mercilessly every day, dreaming of tomorrow.
"This thing had springs," he said, "so the ball came back to you. I would spend
hours out there. My mom would ask, 'What did you do today?' I'd say, 'I beat
(Ivan) Lendl, (Boris) Becker and (Stefan) Edberg. They didn't put up much of a
fight. Pete (Sampras) and Andre were a little tough. But I took them out, too,
no problem.' "
Before he turned 20, Roddick was a for-real winner on the ATP Tour, claiming
back-to-back titles in Atlanta and Houston in 2001 while unleashing a ferocious
serve that has reached 149 mph on the radar gun. What A-Rod found out, though,
was that brute force alone couldn't make him a multiple Slam champion. Like
every other special young player who came along before him, he needed to learn
to finish points and to handle adverse patches better.
After losing in the first round at the French Open to journeyman Sargis
Sargsian, he fired his longtime coach and joined up with Agassi's former mentor
, Brad Gilbert. The pairing has been a perfect one. Roddick uses the word
"camaraderie" to describe the dynamic between them. Despite Gilbert's own
chatter-box, live-wire personality, he has had a calming effect on the
combustible Roddick, helping him channel his energy in positive ways.
"Brad helped me get my head in a good place," he said. "He keeps me relaxed,
but at the same time he won't let me slack off, either. He's not about playing
mind games. We have a lot of the same interests (such as a passion for sports
trivia), so it's just a good, positive relationship."
Roddick lost to a nearly flawless Federer in the Wimbledon semifinals, but that
proved to be a minor hiccup. He won four of the five tournaments to dominate
the hard-court season, culminating in his own nearly flawless victory over
Ferrero in the Open final, the day after he had rallied from two sets and a
match point down against Nalbandian in the semis. Post Wimbledon, he has
dropped only four tournament matches.
But Ferrero's getting that far on the hard floor of Flushing Meadow, where he
defeated Hewitt and Agassi in consecutive rounds, was a warning to everyone
that the king of Roland Garros is not to be dismissed as just another cookie
-cutter dirt-baller from the Iberian peninsula.
"That really impressed me," McEnroe said. "He's obviously more comfortable on
cement than people think, and his serve is very underrated. He hits the corners
and puts a lot of spin on it. You saw how tough it was for Andre to jump on his
second serve."
Roddick, however, took Ferrero apart in the final, beating the Spaniard with
the same authority Federer showed against him at Wimbledon. Of the group,
Federer offers the most complete package -- his reflex volley is the best since
Patrick's big brother, John, re-defined perfection in the shot -- but he tends
to lose his way frequently. Other than Wimbledon, he didn't get past the fourth
round at the other three majors and also lost in the first round at Roland
Garros to Luis Horna, No. 127 in the world when the year began.
"Talent-wise, a player like Roger comes along maybe once every 25 years,"
Patrick McEnroe said. "When he's on, he's beautiful to watch. He has more
options to turn to than the others. He has the ability to slice, to take the
ball early, to come to the net, to play defensively if necessary. He can do
everything."
If all three are at their very best, particularly on a medium-fast surface such
as the one at Westside that the Masters Cup will utilize, Federer would be the
favorite. But victories by Roddick or Ferrero would not be upsets.
"We're all pretty close (in ability), and we like each other," Roddick said.
"Juan Carlos is a great guy -- except he's quiet; he doesn't say a lot. Roger
and I are always very friendly with each other. He's a super-nice guy, too.
"We have a lot of mutual respect. It's shaping up as a pretty good group, huh?"
No "huh" about it.
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