Roddick Is Looking for ‘a Fresh Start’

Andy Roddick, Wimbledon runner-up the last two years and the No. 3-seeded player this time, has tiptoed into town with barely a murmur. He hasn’t won a tournament since October. He lost in the third round of the Australian Open and the first round of the French Open. He left France a dispirited loser with a sore ankle. In his only grass-court tournament, he lost to fellow American James Blake in straight sets in the semifinals.

And Sunday during a practice session, Roddick once angrily whipped his racket against a fence and cursed at himself.

But afterward it was a pleasant Roddick who pronounced himself fully healthy and ready to play.

“I’m looking forward to Wimbledon,” he said. “It’s a surface geared toward my game. I don’t have to make a lot of changes.”

Roddick opens against 108th-ranked Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia and might face No. 18-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the fourth round. It was Baghdatis who upset Roddick at the Australian Open.

With a lackluster 24-11 record so far this season, Roddick has been hearing criticism that he seems unwilling or unable to change a game that has become predictably based on a hard but not always well-placed serve and a one-note forehand.

“I just like playing here,” he said. “It feels like a good chance to make a fresh start.”

Top-seeded and three-time defending champion Roger Federer thinks Roddick is still a big threat.

“Because of his game and his name and because of his experience, what he’s achieved on grass the last few years,” Federer said. “Just because he lost a grass-court match not against me doesn’t mean he can’t play on grass anymore. A guy like him, former No. 1, former Grand Slam champion, any tournament they can all of a sudden turn it around.”

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Venus Williams said it was unlikely she would join the United States’ Federation Cup team in its semifinal match against Belgium on July 15-16.

“I don’t think I’ll be playing, no,” she said Sunday. “I can’t play that much tennis and stay healthy. It’s a proven fact.”

Kim Clijsters, the world’s second-ranked player, has said she will be part of Belgium’s team, though third-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne hasn’t said positively she will play. The match will take place on indoor hard courts in Liege, Belgium.

“I really wish it was in the States,” Williams said.

With Lindsay Davenport having pulled out of Wimbledon because of a back injury and Serena Williams still sidelined because of a knee injury, the U.S. probably will have to play Belgium with the likes of Jamea Jackson, Jill Craybas, Vania King and Shenay Perry, who beat a German team of Anna-Lena Groenfeld, Julia Schruff, Martina Muller and Jasmin Woehr in the first round.