The recently retired Andy Roddick tells the New York Times that his body took more of a pounding than most while playing.
“I’m not graceful like Roger Federer],” [Roddick said. “I feel like I have to use a lot more effort, a lot more of my physical tools to play. The way you saw me when I was playing was the way I went about every practice. My body kept asking for more and I’m not sure that I had more to give. The recovery became hard.”
Roddick added that maybe he should have taken a cue from his friend Serena Williams, who has scheduled her tournaments carefully over the years.
“I often say to her, ‘Maybe the years when you kind of weren’t there, maybe they’re helping you now.’ I was just nose to the grindstone. Maybe she was some kind of genius when everyone was criticizing her for it.”