Roddick Was Always a Serve and Volleyer

Some thoughts while watching the Australian Open:

Both Andy Roddick and James Blake stick their butts out before they serve. Just for a second they look like Jemima Puddleduck. Or some other member of the poultry family.

Roddick's game has improved under Jimmy Connors but not the way everyone is saying. Connors has gotten him to relax and hang at the baseline more. Andy used to constantly charge the net -- he never was just the power player everyone said -- but he'd choke and blow the shot.

Everyone is saying reverentially "Andy has changed so much. Now he'll come to net". Wrong! He always came to net but now he does so more judiciously.

Mary Jo Hernandez is aging oddly. She always had a girlish prettiness. Now I'm not sure what's going on. She's still pretty but she looks different. People do change as they age -- except me. Someone like David Bowie can go from looking like Greta Garbo to some little pug-faced Cockney, over time.

Patrick McEnroe has always had little rodenty hands. Every year they come out. He clutches them inward to make his points, and they make him look like a little woodland creature.

Patrick McEnroe, like his brother John, uses an Anglo locution: "He comes to net a lot, does Roddick" or "He's showing a lot of promise, is Ancic." I wonder if their Irish father used that phrasing.

Patrick McEnroe is plenty insightful but I miss Johnny Mac -- his wry jabs at himself, his shrewd tennis savvy.

Go Roddick.