Roddick Reminds Us Again That He’s Good but Not Great

If Andy Roddick is going to make Andre Agassi irrelevant, this isn’t the way to do it.

Roddick couldn’t keep the U.S. Davis Cup hopes alive against Croatia on Sunday. He couldn’t give Southern California tennis fans an extra chance at one of the now-dwindling opportunities to see Agassi play in person.

And Roddick still hasn’t made good on his potential to replace Agassi as America’s preeminent tennis name.

It was Agassi’s presence that gave this Davis Cup first-round match at the Home Depot Center a little extra sizzle, helping to sell 18,760 tickets -- a three-day record for a first-round matchup in the United States. But Agassi lost to Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets Friday, a reminder that his presence is becoming more ceremonial than functional. And when Roddick’s five-set loss to Ljubicic on Sunday clinched a victory for Croatia in the best-of-five format, Agassi didn’t even have to take the court for the “dead rubber” final match. The U.S. sent out Bob Bryan instead.

Agassi, 35, will play in Indian Wells this week. He might play in the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA this summer. Beyond that, who knows? He has told his agent that one day, when he feels he can’t win Grand Slams anymore, he’ll call it quits. There’ll be little advance warning and no farewell tour.

We could have witnessed the torch passing Sunday. Instead it looked more like a bobbled baton.

Roddick remains among the tennis elite, ranked No. 3 in the world. And he did get the United States’ only victory of the weekend when he beat Mario Ancic on Friday.

The problem is that he hasn’t vaulted to that higher level, the place formerly occupied by Agassi and Pete Sampras.

It was all the way back at the 2002 U.S. Open that Sampras called Roddick “the future of the game, especially in the U.S.”

Unfortunately, since those words left Sampras’ mouth on the eve of their quarterfinal matchup in New York, Sampras and Agassi have won more Grand Slams than Roddick, 2-1.

We might end up saying that Roddick had the misfortune of coming of age at the same time as Roger Federer, the same way Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and Karl Malone are all ringless because they entered the NBA at the same time as Michael Jordan.

But it seems as if Roddick keeps squandering his opportunities, and there were many examples of that Sunday in a match that had as many turns as a marathon -- and lasted even longer.

After splitting the first two sets, Roddick and Ljubicic entered a tiebreaker in the third. Roddick raced out to a 4-1 lead, but couldn’t make it stand. He blew three set points and fell to Ljubicic, 13-11.

Roddick rallied to win the fourth set in a tiebreaker, had the rambunctious crowd roaring ... and promptly was broken to start the fifth set.

Ljubicic was admittedly tired, and had to have a trainer rub his legs to relieve a sore knee in the middle of the set. But it was Roddick who folded like a poker player holding 2-6-9.

He wasted three break points in the fourth game, then was broken himself again in the fifth.

“I just played a loose game,” Roddick said. “Bottom line, I didn’t make him play good tennis.”

There should be a sense of urgency for Roddick right now. At 22 he’s in the heart of his tennis career. Despite that, what he needs right now is patience.

Instead of forcing Ljubicic to run around, wear down and make unforced errors, Roddick kept going for the kill. He often wound up whacking balls out of bounds or even against the back wall. A costly example came in the eighth game of the first set. Roddick led, 40-15, and went into attack mode.

But his forehand went wide, the beginning of a Ljubicic comeback that enabled him to break Roddick.

Roddick’s still more power than precision. So even though he cranked his serve up to 150 mph, Ljubicic could handle him.

“I have much more difficulty to return the serves that are really accurate, not with all the power,” Ljubicic said.

So the Davis Cup moves on without the United States, although I never can tell exactly what stage the competition is in. First round? Finals? Is it ever over? Who’s the current champion? Does anyone know?

We don’t know if we’ll ever see Agassi compete for the United States again. And, from a figurative standpoint, who will stand beside Roddick to carry the American flag in the tennis world? Besides Roddick and Agassi (ninth), the only other American in the top 30 of the ATP rankings is Vince Spadea, at No. 18. And you don’t see Spadea in any ESPN commercials.

When Agassi bungee-jumped up and down the world rankings, Sampras was always there as the steady force. There’s no one else for Roddick right now, and he has yet to take the final step to the top.

“Andy is getting better,” Davis Cup Captain Patrick McEnroe said. “So are the other guys.

“He’s doing a lot of things really well. He’s just going to have to continue to work on that and continue to get better, because so is everybody else.”

Ljubicic went out of his way to point out how impressed he was that Agassi dropped by the Croatian locker room to congratulate them and say how much he enjoyed watching the match.

“I appreciate that from him and I think he’s a great person,” Ljubicic said.

And, unfortunately, still the only American ambassador of tennis.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.