OU men’s tennis coach, John Roddick, and his brother Andy will play as a doubles team in the Oklahoma Tennis Classic on Sunday, September 25, at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.
The Roddick brothers, unlike other tennis siblings Venus and Serena Williams or Bob and Mike Bryan, were unable to play doubles matches growing up. The Williams sisters are separated by one year in age and the Bryan brothers by just three minutes while the Roddicks are six years apart
“When you’re 18 and he’s 12 it’s just too hard to play. As far as juniors go the age difference was just too extreme.”
The two started their doubles endeavors in 2001.
“We used to do some of these when I traveled with him full-time as his coach. We did several of these, usually against the Bryan brothers. We played doubles in Washington D.C. in one of the U.S. Open series events in 2001.”
The two will play against Mardy Fish and David Martin, both of which have been coached by John Roddick.
The Oklahoma Tennis Classic is a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls club, but is also designed to bring awareness to tennis in the Oklahoma City area.
“They do these in a lot of cities. For here I think it’s important for the city and for the awareness of tennis. They don’t get a ton of tennis events. I think this is the first kind of big time tennis event since Davis Cup in 2002.”
Though the match is an exhibition, the Roddicks have a passion for tennis and share an intensity to win.
“Andy and I had a similar playing style as far as our passion, but I see it as you have two choices: you can either win or lose and I want to win,” Roddick said.
No comments:
Post a Comment