Former US Open champ Andy Roddick hoping Serena Williams soaks in farewell, however long it lasts

Andy Roddick was there. Type of.

In 2012, the day after his 30th birthday, the former US Open champion announced that he would be retiring from tennis after the US Open. He had won his opening round match at Flushing Meadows the day before, and now he knew any match could be his last for the remainder of the tournament.

That’s the situation Serena Williams is in at the start of Monday’s US Open. The 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed in Vogue magazine on August 9 that the US Open will be her last tournament. One loss and her legendary career comes to an end.

“Having done it on a much smaller scale, retiring at the US Open was one of my favorite weeks of my career,” Roddick told The Sporting News on behalf of IBM. “Compared to this celebration Serena has ahead of me, I’m a tiny flash on the radar.

“As a friend, I hope she captures the innocent moments, the interactions with people she doesn’t know how often she’ll see. I hope she pays attention to that part and I hope she innocently looks around the stadium and it’s packed and people are cheering her and she takes it in.”

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Williams, 41, competed in three tournaments in 2022 – Wimbledon, Toronto and Cincinnati – and she’s only 1-3, reaching the second round in Toronto. She has struggled with various nagging injuries that have hampered her game, but Roddick says he hears encouraging things from Williams’ training sessions. She was more aggressive in her movements and doesn’t wear protective tapes on her knees.

Regardless of her physical condition, the specter of her retirement will hover over every match she plays, and even for someone as experienced as Williams, it will take a toll.

“There aren’t many things that Serena Williams is doing for the first time, but retiring from the US Open is a first, so how is she going to handle those emotions?” Roddick said. “She was the most emotional I’ve ever seen in Toronto. As much as she loves Toronto, New York will be a different type of relationship that has many different roots for her.”

Williams won her first major at the US Open in 1999, defeating top seed Martina Hingis in the final and reaching nine other finals in New York, winning five. Her last US Open title came in 2014, and she lost in the finals in 2018 and 2019. And while her game was superb in front of a home crowd, Williams also had two unfortunate incidents in high-profile moments. In 2009, she threatened a linesman after a foot fault, resulting in a match point penalty against Kim Clijsters in the semifinals. In 2018, she received a match penalty after three violations in the final against Naomi Osaka, which contributed to her straight-set loss.

Reaching a final this year is highly unlikely given her lack of court time in 2022, but she will be the star attraction on both the women’s and men’s sides while she’s still in the draw. If she wins her first match against Danka Kovinic, Williams will face No. 2 Anett Kontaveit in Round 2.

“It’s anyone’s guess how it’s going to go,” Roddick said. “I hope we get another thrill. I hope we get a dramatic threesome that the crowd will join in on. But anyway, I’m grateful that she announced it and let us in on the journey as we celebrate her career, which it was meant to be.

“Whether it’s round one, whether it’s round four is largely irrelevant as long as we can properly celebrate their place in the game, which is difficult to use the right superlatives. When I know Serena she thinks of one thing and that is winning seven games. I don’t know if that’s possible. I hope so. She ticks a little differently, which is why she has won 23 Grand Slams.

US Open 2022 favorites breakdown

The women’s betting favorite is world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, the 21-year-old Pole who has two Grand Slams on her resume and was on a record 37-match winning streak earlier this year, including seven wins at the French Open. In her two hard court tunings for the US Open, Swiatek lost in the round of 16 in both Toronto (to Beatriz Haddad Maia) and Cincinnati (to Madison Keys).

The player who beat Swiatek in the French Open final, American Coco Gauff, is among the players expected to play in New York at least into week two. Gauff, who grew up with the Williams sisters and upset Venus at Wimbledon in 2019 aged 15, is ranked 12th and will play at her fourth US Open. Her best result was the third round, but in 2021 she reached the final in doubles.

“I hope Coco makes a run. As much success as she had in that outburst at Wimbledon when she was 9 and then at the French Open this year, she can now navigate a Grand Slam tournament through two weeks,” Roddick said. “Find your pace. Set it up. Fortnight, 14 sets you need to win. You have to learn to find your way around. She didn’t have her best results at the US Open. It is learned practice to play on home soil. That can be super stressful.”

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With Novak Djokovic missing the tournament due to his vaccination status, the men’s favorite is defending champion Daniil Medvedev, who is ranked No. 1 in the world and denied Djokovic a calendar slam in the US Open final last year. He could face Wimbledon finalist Nick Krygios, a player Medvedev lost to in Toronto earlier this month, in the fourth round.

“(Medvedev) is great at these longer games,” said Roddick. “You give him a larger sample size to force you to make mistakes. He’s got that awkward game where you feel like you’re ahead of the ball, it’s like slow death. He’s probably the favorite as we don’t know Rafa’s health status.”