Andy Roddick says he’s confident that he’ll recover from the injury that put him out of the ATP World Tour Finals in time to play Australian Open 2010.
The world No.6, who injured his left knee during a match against Stanislas Wawrinka at the Shanghai Masters in October, said he was disappointed to miss the season finale in London but confident of making a comeback for the start of next season.
“Very bummed about not playing at masters,” he tweeted to fans. “I am at about 75 percent with the knee but haven’t been able to hit yet. Hopefully I can start hitting a little bit this week. I expect to make a full recovery and will be ready for Australia.”
The top-ranked American on the ATP Tour, Roddick was the Australian Open junior champion in 2000 and Melbourne Park has been the scene of some key moments in his career.
In 2003, his breakthrough year at senior level, he won an epic five-hour quarterfinal against Younes El Aynaoui at the Australian Open.
The fifth set scoreline of 21 games to 19 took two-hours and 23-minutes to play out – making it, at that point, the longest Grand Slam fifth set in the open era. Weary after the late-night encounter with El Aynaoui, he lost in the semifinals to Rainer Schuettler 5-7 6-2 3-6 3-6.
Ranked No.1 in the world, Roddick surrendered the top spot to Roger Federer at Australian Open 2004, losing to Marat Safin in the quarterfinals while the Swiss won his inaugural title at Melbourne Park.
Ranked No.2 in the world, the A-Rod was again a semifinalist in 2005, this time losing a tense four-set encounter against Lleyton Hewitt, 6-3 6-7(3) 6-7(4) 1-6 to give the tournament its first home-town men’s singles finalist since Pat Cash in 1988.
In 2007, Roddick played a marathon first round match against Jo Wilfried Tsonga, losing the first set tiebreak 18-20 before running out a winner in four sets, going on to reach the semifinals for the third time in his career.
There he managed just six games against Federer in a three-set drubbing that brought their career head-to-head to 1-13 in Federer’s favour.
And in 2009 Roddick again reached the latter stages at Melbourne Park, outlasting world No.3 Novak Djokovic in a heat-effected quarterfinal before falling to Federer in straight sets for his sixteenth victory over the American in eighteen matches.
Roddick, who continued his track record of fighting out Grand Slam five-set thrillers in the Wimbledon 2009 final against Federer, will be making his ninth main draw appearance at the Australian Open in 2010 after kicking off his season at the Brisbane International from January 3.
