U.S. Open: Roddick d. Tomic

NEW YORK—Lest I be mistaken for someone who can resist the obvious, let me start with this: Andy Roddick should retire more often.

Barely 24 hours after declaring that this U.S. Open will be the last of his long, distinguished, and sometimes bittersweet career, Roddick comprehensively crushed 19-year-old talent Bernard Tomic. The match lasted an hour and 27 minutes but seemed to fly by even faster as Roddick buried the Aussie in a blizzard of aces (13), winners (33) and volleys (Roddick succeeded on 23 of his 33 forays to the net).  


Those numbers are even more impressive when you consider the brevity of this execution. Roddick won it 6-3, 6-4, 6-0. Turning points? Roddick broke Tomic in the second game of the match for a 2-0 lead; he could just as well have trotted to the net to accept the congratulatory handshake at that point.  


The drubbing was tainted only by the way Tomic ventured dangerously close to conspicuously tanking the match in the third set. He didn’t win a point in that one until Roddick was serving with two breaks in hand at 3-0.  


It could not have been an easy situation for Tomic, given his youth and the way this tournament became a **Roddick lovefest** the moment to former champion and face of American tennis for the past decade announced that he was calling it quits.  


The Aussie youngster will wince when he sees tape of this match, but others have gone an entire career without having to face a high-quality player so fueled by emotion and so obviously in a position of having nothing to lose. Among other things, the chemistry on display, and Roddick’s level of play and emotional engagement, confirmed that crossing his career Rubicon had the effect of lifting a great weight from his shoulders. He turned 30 yesterday, but tonight Roddick played like a hungry 20-year old.  


But the unique dynamic also embodied an interesting lesson. For this was the kind of match Roddick fans and pundits had expected and hoped he might play for a number of years now. Although Tomic’s style in general and his mood tonight played right into this narrative, the lingering impression is that Roddick played with aggression, command and opportunism that he’s been unable to tap into with any frequency in  recent years.  


Tonight, perhaps as a parting gift from fate, the serve was heavy and the forehand behind it had plenty of sting. The eyes were alert and the leg muscles ever ready to explode and drive Roddick forward. Those faithful fans who had nibbled their nails to the quick futilely trying to will Roddick to move up from behind the baseline and take charge were finally rewarded. This was the late-career match that ought to go into the time capsule so that interplanetary visitors in the future might get a glimpse of Roddick at his best.  


But the takeaway isn’t that Roddick has been stubbornly clinging to a sere game plan in the twilight of his career; it is that he probably made the right decision to retire because the motivation that fires a player, and which can’t be summoned with an act of will or through practice or diligence, just hasn’t been there often enough and consistently enough to warrant continuing to play.  


Roddick had that motivation tonight, but he had to go to the final source to get it. As for Tomic, a callow if not entirely innocent bystander at what might be a final (or near final), fierce display of championship pride and skill, John McEnroe put it best when the slaughter ended: “It was a well-deserved beating.”

For more on Roddick's retirement, check out TENNIS.com's A-Rod coverage from the U.S. Open.