Chronicling 2 High Profile Retirements

With Kim Clijsters and Andy Roddick announcing that the US Open will be their swansong (the Belgian already out of the tournament), there is a certain inevitability about further retirements of higher profile names in their generation in the not too distant future – notably the likes of Roger Federer and the Williams sisters. Clijsters and Roddick were never the best players of their generation but were both enormous crowd pullers.

Kim and daughter Jada : One of the more enduring tennis images of  recent years

I remember well the days of the late nineties – Steffi Graf was on her way out, the power of the Williams duo was destined to rule the game for the next decade. In the midst of this you heard names of 2 teenagers who were pipped to really take on the battle against the Americans – Martina Hingis and Clijsters. Their careers could not have been more different. Hingis blossomed early , won a slew of grand slams in her teens, reached number one and just when it seemed that the world was at her feet, injuries and loss of form struck from which she never recovered. Klijsters on the other hand looked like the early promise may have been overdone. There were a number of good performances and the odd slam final but the crown somehow always eluded her. Add to it the high profile engagement and subsequent breakup with Lleyton Hewitt and her premature retirement due to injuries, and it seemed that the single US open title would be the only one in her repertoire. However, in one of the more stunning comebacks in sporting history, she returned as a Mum and displayed a level of excellence that fetched her three further slams. Her game was never as artistic as that of her compatriot Justine Henin or as powerful as that of Serena and Venus , but she covered the court with amazing dexterity (all the more commendable as she hardly was the smallest player on the tour). The fact that she was one of the most likeable ladies didn’t hurt her cause. Always smiling, gracious in victory or defeat and without a trace of controversy ever dogging her, Kim became the darling of tennis crowds worldwide (especially in Australia and the US , the scenes of her grand slam triumphs). She leaves a unique legacy in that a post retirement comeback of such success is scarcely likely to be replicated, in the men’s or the women’s game.

Andy Roddick : Good Player in an Era of Legends

I have actually felt sorry for Andy Roddick many a time over his professional career. Pretty much the sole heir to the golden era of American Men’s Tennis, it was always going to be an improbable task to emulate Sampras, Agassi and Courier.  The booming serve was his forte, the powerful forehand a great asset but both his backhand and net skills left a bit to be desired as he was to eventually come up against some of the greatest ever in the game. He won his first (and only) slam in Flushing Meadows before Roger Federer had his first and got tennis writers all over predicting a rivalry for the ages over the years. The rivalry bit was true but the name Roddick didn’t feature in it. He was ever the Ivanisevic to the Sampras of Federer (all those Wimbledon final losses) – and unlike Goran, he will not now get an unlikely name on the trophy. True, he nearly denied Roger his destiny in that 16-14 fifth set final, but that game apart, A-Rod was consistently second best to the Swiss maestro over a host of meetings on all kinds of surfaces.  The emergence of the Nadal and Djokovic pretty much made it impossible for Roddick to sneak in that 2^nd slam. It was inconceivable that all three would play below par in a single tournament and hence , for a player to go the whole way, he would have to produce 2 weeks of scintillating tennis, to outmatch these masters similar to the likes of Krajicek , Safin and Del Potro over the years. It didn’t need rocket science to note that Andy didn’t really have the game for that. Andy was and still remains an immensely likeable fellow with a penchant for the humorous at his press conferences. He leaves the game, probably to his legion of supporters (mostly Americans wondering what happened to their dominance in the men’s game) having underachieved. However to the more pragmatic, Andy will probably be the guy who was overburdened by expectations that perhaps never should have been his lot in the first place.