By Matthew Cronin

It’s not bad being the world No. 3 — if you are from Slovenia or Peru.

But for Andy Roddick, who hails from a tennis’ superpower, looking way up at Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal last year didn’t settle right, which is why in February, he changed coaches for the third time since June ‘03. Out went brainy Dean Goldfine; in came his authoritative olderbrother, John.

“It was getting a little stagnant,” Roddick said. “I don’t know if I was doing justice to the level of Dean’s coaching. We both needed to cut our losses.”

In ‘03, Roddick parted ways with French Davis Cup player Tarik Benhabiles, who had discovered him as a junior, and hired Brad Gilbert, who took him to the U.S. Open title and the No. 1 ranking.

But after a five-month slump at the end of ‘04, Roddick fired Gilbert (whom he no longer got along with personally) at his family’s urging in December and took on Goldfine, who at the time was a Davis Cup coach. Under Goldfine last year, Roddick won five medium-sized tournaments and reached the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Federer. However, Roddick’s shocking first-round loss at last year’s U.S. Open to Gilles Muller and then his defeat at the hands of eventual finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus at the ‘06 Aussie Open left him looking for a new direction. A former top collegiate player at Georgia, John also coaches U.S. Open junior champion Ryan Sweeting and isn’t afraid to carry a big stick.

“Everyone brings something different to the table,” Roddick said. “ I’ve been fortunate to learn from different people. Brad’s great in between the lines. Dean was great as far as professionalism and preparation. Tarik taught me about the work ethic. John brings a comfort zone and stability. He’s not afraid to give me opinions and get into to me, which is nice.”

Whether John can turn around Andy’s fortunes is debatable, but at the very least, Andy trusts that he can. John has been patiently waiting in the wings and is looking at this as his big-time opportunity to show that he can coach at an elite level.

Carl Chang was able to keep his younger bother, Michael, on an even and successful keel for more than a decade, so John can possibly push Andy back where he belongs — as a confident kid with enough firepower to threaten anyone out there, including Federer, whom he is 1-10 against.

“John knows Andy as well as anyone,” said U.S. Davis Cup captain Pat McEnroe. “He’s never stopped following his game and won’t be afraid to criticize Andy. Maybe Andy needs some of that. He gets pissed off at me sometimes, too, but he’s willing to listen, and it’s a good sign. He really respects John.”
While Roddick does at times dismiss the opinion that he’s dissatisfied with his place in tennis, he’s super-competitive and won’t be happy if he retires as a mere afterthought to Roger. Not being able to topple Federer, or seeing Nadal and his 11 titles race past him last year, or being unable to consistently beat Hewitt or Agassi bugs him.

“Sometimes it’s weird cause you feel sad about being No. 3 in the world,” he said. “ If you’d have told me a long time ago that I would get there in the first place. I’d have laughed at you. With that being said, I am hungry and want more. I can feel others wanting for me. I know people have high expectations, and I’ve dealt with the good and the bad of it. I have to have the faith there will be good again real soon.”

This is a critical year for the 23-year-old, one in which he needs to prove that he’ll be a legit contender for big crowns for years to come. Roddick finished ranked in the top three for the third year in a row in ‘05. But few folks will remember those results — fans usually just recall Slam results.

At the year’s outset, Roddick said that he would take a more aggressive mentality into ‘06 and not play possum when returning serve. He was planning on being a man to be feared, rather than a guy who played afraid at times in his home country.

“It’s more a mindset thing, just not to stop hitting your shots if you feel like you’re not hitting them well that day,” Roddick said. “It’s something that you can try to make happen from the word go. I’m extremely eager. I’m really looking forward to this year — probably more so than any other point in my career.. Being fit and trying to take as aggressive a mindset are two keys.”

Unfortunately, all the improvements that Roddick tried to make under Goldfine never came to the fore. He came on tour as a two-weapon, serve-and-forehand player who wasn’t quick, but he had an innate sense of confidence and was a terrific fighter, which led to his early success. But his backhand stayed a liability, he doesn’t own a threatening return of serve and despite a good two years of work at the net, his transition game is still wanting. Plus, he doesn’t have natural instincts around the cords and is a mediocre volleyer.

He has worked diligently on those areas as well as on his footwork and fitness, but they have yet to come together. He has developed a dependable one-handed slice backhand and can now lace an occasional two-handed backhand pass down the line, but in a number of critical matches last year, his attempts at net rushing cost him crucial points, as did his varied approaches to retuning serve.

Most other stars have figured out how to play him — get his serve back anyway possible, draw him into a baseline rally and then hammer his backhand, or draw him to net and pass him. It works for Federer, Hewitt and Agassi — all great return-of-servers.

“We all look at Andy and try to figure out what he needed to do better,” McEnroe said. “But he set the bar very high for himself. Everyone has vulnerabilities. Andy is working hard to improve those. He knows that there is work to be done in his transition game and hitting his backhand with more pace and depth. I’d like to see him try to use the things he’s working on in less pressurized matches. But doing it when you are playing in Slams and Davis Cup — there’s are a lot of pressure. But when the [changes] start to click, when his confidence gets back, he will see the results again.”

Roddick is a stress monster, which has also affected his results.

As McEnroe said, sometimes Andy gets too amped up and when he does, he puts his body at risk. While he denied that nerves led to his puke-fest loss to Andrei Pavel in Davis Cup, he didn’t have the stomach flu or food poisoning and admitted that his stomach was tied up in knots coming on court.

“Andy’s an emotional and intense guy,” McEnroe said,” I like how intense he gets, but maybe it’s my fault for not helping him strike a better balance. Sometimes his stomach gets upset. Some great athletes throw up before every match. Fortunately, he doesn’t do that. “

Mentally, Roddick is still debating how he should approach matches. After the Pavel debacle, he changed course and attempted the calm, cool, collected approach. He’s known for his fist pumps, but over the past year, he’s been spending way too much time fighting himself.

“It’s a constant learning process,” Roddick said after clinching the D.C. tie over Razvan Sabau. “ I don’t know if you can do one thing all the time. Even the calmest guys out there, like Sampras, got fired up sometimes. But it’s definitely something that can be learned and especially in Davis Cup matches when the tensions are high. Maybe today was the start of it.”

Roddick is clearly searching for the Rx for what’s holding him back. It’s quite possible that all the strategic theories that Gilbert and Goldfine put into his head confused him, which is why he has decided to get back to the basics: big serve, bigger forehands and big-time competitiveness. Maybe then, he can mix in some of his newfound skills, but only when he is comfortable again.

“I’m going back to being a tennis player,” Roddick said. “I need to look for a shot and hit it, not think about what I’m going to try during this point or that. I’m trying to simplify things. That’s natural for me as opposed to forcing something that’s not there. I have to remember what got me there. Luckily I’m not in a position of being 33 and looking back and wondering. Maybe it needs to be a mesh of the two. I learned a lot of new things under Dean and got comfortable doing a lot, but I need to find a happy medium.”

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