TENNIS in DEPTH.

Though Roddick’s fall season has been complicated by a knee problem, and he missed this week’s Paris Masters because of the injury, he is still expecting to return to London for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which starts in a week’s time at the O2 Arena.

Outside of Wimbledon, it will be the biggest tennis tournament ever held in Britain, and Roddick, assuming he makes the trip, will plainly see how much the British tennis public appreciated his grass-court efforts four months ago.

Of the five grand slam finals Roddick has played in – two at the US Open, and three at Wimbledon – this year’s title-match at the All England Club is the one that everyone wants to talk to him about. “I’ve had so many comments about that match. A lot of people seem to have been affected by it.

I’ve played in five slam finals now, and that was definitely the most dramatic and the one that people have wanted to talk about the most,” he said.

“I still think about the match with Roger, of course, it’s normal for me to do that, as that was probably the biggest match of my career, but when I think about it, it’s not all negative, it’s not all bad. I don’t get too down.

“The support I got from the fans was great, and maybe a bit surprising as well. I had a great tournament, getting through to the final, and coming close to winning. I think I can be proud of what I achieved at Wimbledon.”

The popular view in Britain of American athletes is that they are a self-satisfied, self-important lot, an impression partly created by the high-school movies showing the ‘jocks’ pushing people up against the lockers.

There is still something of the all-American ‘jock’ about Roddick, but he seems to be a calmer soul on and off the court these days, a change that you can attribute to his marriage in April to Brooklyn Decker.

“I’m not very good at analysing tennis and marriage and how that works together, but I do know that if you’re happy you’re probably going to be playing better tennis. She understands that I have to work really hard on my tennis, as there’s a certain shelf life for my playing career.

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