Mom’s the Word - 網球

Mom’s the Word

December 5th, 2005 03:07 pm
By Andyroddick.com Staff



Q.- You have three boys, tell me a little bit about them.
A.- Lawrence is 15 years older and John is six years older than Andy. They are
all spread out. I loved it that way.



Q. John also played tennis. Was there competition between them?
A.- No. It was good because there was no much age difference. When Andy was
nine, John was with the National Team playing all over the world.



Q.- What was the most challenging thing about having two boys playing tennis?
A.- We tried to keep comparison out of it. We were constantly asked: Is Andy
better than John was at this age? We really never answered it. Andy played
almost a year in Florida before anyone knew he was the brother of John
Roddick,who was on the national team.



Q.- Are there any special stories about the brothers?
A.- Lawrence is a spring board diver, so when Andy was two, Lawrence was
competing nationally in a spring board competition. Andy hadn’t seen him for
a while because Lawrence was in an aquatics program in California. Andy was in
the pool and Lawrence jumped in to play with him. He splashed Andy and Andy
said, “Don’t mess with Andy.” Lawrence remembers that to this day- “Don't
mess with Andy.”

With John and Andy, they played doubles together in a pro tournament in
Washington, D.C. Before they went on, Andy said, “All the money we win will
be yours.” I think they did win a couple of rounds and they packed the stadium
.They really had a good time. The one thing the three of them did was play
ping-pong. Whenever they were together, they would be outside on the Ping-Pong
table and I would find Ping-Pong paddles on the roof and in the pool. They ran
out of balls because they smashed them. That’s one thing that anyone who ever
visited the house would remember: the battles on the Ping-Pong table.



Q.- Andy wrote a book about tennis when he was a kid- tell me about that.
A.- It was amazing. He was in second grade and he wrote about the top 10
players, he wrote a little blurb about each of them. Andre Agassi, Brad Gilbert
, Aaron Krickstein, Boris Becker, and John McEnroe. He knew the top 10 and drew
pictures. He did a lot of writing. His teacher would bind his books and put
them in the library. I have the original tennis book. I think he checked out
his own book out of his own school library twice.



Q.- When he hit a spell where he wasn’t winning in juniors, how was that to
deal with?
A.- When he was 12, he never lost a match. My husband and I would actually go
to the courts hoping he would lose because we didn’t want that pressure of
always winning on him. Everyone expected him to win. He would win the first
set and then in his head, he’d keep saying, “I can’t lose. I can’t lose.”
Well, he would freeze and lose. One day he said, “Mom, I have it figured out.
I don’t have to play for anyone; I just have to play for myself.” Then it
was off his shoulders. He was 14.



Q.- I know in my home that there is a lot going on. There’s school, tennis
lessons, and tournaments on the weekend. How did you juggle all of that?
A.- There’s one rule that I think was very important. No matter how hectic
the schedule, the evening meal was with everybody. No television. No tennis
talk.They would talk about school, activities, friends, whatever. That was
always the rule.



Q.- Is it true that Andy was once clock-watching while he was playing a
tournament so that he could get to his senior prom?
A.- Yes. It was prom day and he was the mast match on. So for him to made prom
he had to walk off the match. We hold him that was fine.



Q.- Is there any one moment that stands out as your proudest moment?
A.- I think there are several. As far as tennis goes, I think it was here in
Miami when he beat Pete Sampras at 18 years old. After he finished the match,
somebody came out and told me, “Andy wants to see you.” So I went in and he
was in the hallway and he gave me a great big hug, and he said, “Thanks for
driving me all those miles.”



Q.- Are there any other moments that make you proud?
A.- There are these three little boys. One is in Austin, named Alex, who lost
his hand in a boating accident. Another little boy was in serious car
accident; he had brain damage and was in a coma. A third boy, Garret, he met
through St. Jude’s. Garret had brain and spinal cord tumors. Andy has met all
of these boys to encourage them. So things like that make you so proud. When
he reaches out, it’s so much beyond tennis. Through tennis he reaches out to
people, but it’s so much deeper than that.



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