by Sandra Harwitt
The next great American star might very well be this dandy Andy.
Could it be? A legitimate heir apparent to Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras? Say hello to a 17-year-old high school senior from Florida named Andy Roddick.
"Andy's the most talented kid I've ever had in my hands," says his coach, Tarik Benhabiles, who's also the mentor of French pros Cedric Pioline and Nicolas Escude.
Much of the hype surrounding Roddick stems from the blistering run he made late last year and early this year: The resident of Boca Raton won the Eddie Herr International Junior Championships and the Orange Bowl Boys 18s in December 1999, then added the Australian Open boys' title in January 2000. The back-to-back-to-back wins catapulted Roddick to the International Tennis Federation's No. 1 junior ranking. "It really feels good to be No. 1," says Roddick, noting that he has already met his goals for this year. To try and exceed them, he turned pro and made his debut in March at the Citrix Championships in Delray Beach, Fla., losing in a squeaker to Italy's Laurence Tieleman 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 in the first round.
"Roddick seems to have all the shots, and he knows how to deal with the pressure," says Butch Buchholtz, the last American to win the Australian boys' title, back in 1959. Sports Illustrated calls Roddick "the brightest U.S. prospect to rush the net in years."
Not so fast. Roddick says superstardom will have to wait. First, he wants to finish high school in the spring, enter a few Satellite tournaments, and then get some more wild cards into ATP Tour events.
"I'm just happy-go-lucky," he says. "I don't worry about too much and I don't take anything too seriously." Apparently, neither do his buddies. "When I got back from Australia, my friends said, 'How'd you do?' When I said, 'I won,' they said, 'Great, what d'ya wanna do this weekend?' "
Maybe the best news about Roddick is that he's refreshingly normal. Two days after his victory Down Under, Roddick returned to Boca Raton Prep -- and rode the bench on the school's basketball team. "Andy's personality is always to be very responsible and controlled," says Andrew McEwen, the headmaster at the school. "He doesn't stand apart; he fits in with the other students." And he carries a B-plus average in the classroom to boot.
Blanche and Jerry Roddick got their son involved in tennis because they feel it helps build personality. "My mom's into it more than my dad," says Roddick, who was born in Omaha, Neb., and lived in Texas until the family moved to Florida when he was 10. "He hardly knows anything about tennis."
Of course, Roddick realizes that for every Grand Slam junior champ who goes on to greatness in the pros -- Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl, and Bjorn Borg, for example -- there are many who become journeymen, like the last American to win a junior Slam, Scott Humphries (Wimbledon, 1994).
Roddick, who has two older brothers (Lawrence, a chiropractor in Texas, and John, the assistant men's tennis coach at Florida State University), is built along the lines of Patrick Rafter. He's 6-foot-2, but unlike the net-rushing Aussie, Andy's strength is his topspin forehand -- and his smarts. "If he makes a mistake, he analyzes it and can correct it half an hour later and put himself in the right direction," says Benhabiles, who trains with Roddick on the hard court in the family's backyard.
Roddick insists he didn't pattern his game after any one player -- "I developed my own style -- but says he does have two heroes. "I can see famous people at tournaments and not get star struck," he says, "but when I see Agassi and Sampras walking around, I just kind of sit still and my jaw drops."
