JMDP in ... Roddick out ???

When Juan Martin Del Potro limped out of the Madrid Masters with a small hip muscle tear, it seemed that his appearance at the French Open would seriously be in doubt. But with days to go before the weekend start of play and some intense rehabilitation, JMDP has announced via Twitter, "It was a big effort, but see you in Paris".

In direct contrast to this, Andy Roddick is talking down his possible appearance after he was forced to withdraw from Nice and the men doubles final in Rome with a shoulder injury. Roddick's view is that "I don't know yet if I will be able to play at Roland Garros. You cannot play a Grand Slam if you're not 100 percent."

Both players have been plagued by illness and injury since 2010, but Roddick's view is that "I want to avoid spending months out injured, it's not been a great year so far".

So who's taking the biggest risk? Roddick doesn't hide his dislike of clay and has never performed well on it but is trying to protect himself for Wimbledon. JMDP is a recent French Open semi-finalist, but is he taking a risk and what about Wimbledon?? What do you think of their decisions.

Here are the Del Potro and the Roddick links.

I think TBH they're both making the right decision. Roddick has little to gain by playing in Paris, and a lot to lose if he were to aggravate his injury, as then he'd miss Wimbledon where he's got a very good record.

Del Potro on the other hand has a far better chance of making good progress in RG than at Wimbledon (I don't see him as having a good grass court game) and could do with the ranking points a decent performance in RG would get him...

Agree with the above, though I think del Potro should withdraw at any sign of recurrance of his injury; his luck has been utterly rotten and the last thing he needs is another 3/4 months out after coming back too early. That said, he knows his body better than we do, and i'm sure he'll have beared the above in mind when making his decision to play.

Roddick just wants to get the hell away from clay, as usual.

Well, I'm kind of thinking that at the slightest twinge and if it means missing a clay event legitimately, Roddick will do it. But ... he'd have played the doubles final in Rome if he could, I believe.

With JMDP ... I dunno, I think its a risk. I just hope he doesn't become this generation's Marat Safin.

I always thought Safin's issues were more mental than physical, i.e. he was a bit of a nutcase...

I only use that analogy MFC, because he did something similar to JMDP in that in 2000 as a 20 year old, he won the US Open. He then suffered from injuries, but just when he got himself back together (some 5 years later) and won his second Slam in 2005, he was hampered again by a very serious knee injury.

And I just wonder if JMDP is just going to go through a phase of injury, getting back on the tour and up the rankings, then injury niggles getting in the way ... and will this be a pattern till perhaps he gets a Slam success again.

Yes, Safin was a nutcase (and don't we just love him for it), but he said that he mentally couldn't cope with it. Being injured, having to do all the hard work of climbing your way back from no. 137 or something and then just when he thought he was right back in it, having to cope with yet another injury, being lowly ranked again and having to work back. He couldn't cope.

I just hope we don't see the same pattern, that's all.

But isn't this the trouble nowadays with a lot of the players. With the different technology and the relentless grind of the tour, players don't get enough time off between tournaments and the body doesn't get time to heal.

It's so physical now, the pounding that the legs take on these courts, the knees that act like shock absorbers and the speed that this game is now played, I'm surprised that we don't see more serious injuries on more players.

Also a lot of these players are sent out on the tour and they are very very young....their bodies are still developing and they take a lot of punishment.

As far as JM and Roddick are concerned....I can see why Andy has decided to forgo RG for Wimbers....bit of a no brainer for him, he loves Wimbledon and I wonder if retirement is possibly on his mind, and maybe he's only got one or two shots left.

JM....I hope he really is going to be fine for RG....I'd hate to see him struggle through one or two rounds before his body breaks down...but he must be feeling reasonably ok to give it a go.

I don't think Roddick has another slam in him, but he's got a couple of years of earning decent money left. Then again people said he had no chance a couple of years ago, and he got to final of Wimbledon, and in honesty I think he was more than a little hard done by not to win that one.

I'll admit I'm a fan of Roddick and would love to see him win another slam, but I honestly can't see it happening. Makes sense for him to miss Roland Garros though, he's not the best on clay and could use the time to prepare a little extra on grass.

JMDP needs to be careful. He still has potential to win slams but needs to make sure he doesn't overdo it. Will be interesting to see what happens at RG.

I am glad that JMDP's injury is not serious it would be a shame after all he went through last year. As for Roddick, Gonzini I am not a big fan but he has generally been a guy who has given his all to win he just could never figure out a way to beat Fed or he probably would have 3 or 4 slams by now. By the way what are your thoughts on him retiring and the end of this year, he has announced that he is gone at the end of this year.

Has he actually said he is retiring? I remember a thread on here about it but it was just an April Fools joke I think.

I think a lot is made of Roddick's on court behaviour at times, but when watching him in interviews I've found him very likeable. Just goes to show that the pressure of being out there probably does make you do stupid things occasionally.

He definitely would have been a multi slam winner if he'd worked out how to beat Federer. I honestly thought 09 was going to be his year, but now he may be remembered as the "bloke that won more games in a Wimbledon final but still lost". I'd love to at least see him reach one more final, obviously the US Open crowd would love it if it was there, but I think the Wimbledon crowd has a soft spot for him as well, but unfortunately I can't see it happening.

If he does retire soon, I hope he gets a good send off. He's a man that does put every ounce of energy into the matches he plays.

Yes can't disagree, don't really like his big serve style of play. But you knew that if Andy was playing you would get an honest day's work for the price of a ticket. I thought it was for real that he was retiring at the end of the year, maybe I am just gullible. But I honestly can't see him playing for 2 or 3 more seasons. This is a guy used to being a top 5 or six guy and now he is out of the top ten, probably next year he could be out of the 15 or 20. Why stick around?

I don't think he'll stick around that long either, I read an interview where he said he'll only retire if he doesn't believe he can't win tournaments anymore. I do think he genuinely enjoys playing tennis though, so he might keep it up just because he likes the game.

I think another reason I like him is that he has tried to change being known as just a big server. He's learned some basic volleying, and his backhand has improved. He's at least given it a go to improve his game from just a serve!

I'm not just a Roddick fan though, I actually enjoy watching all the top players play!

Yes, Gonzini I do give him credit for cutting down some weight and trying to get better in terms of the backhand and the volleys. He is much improved but maybe he waited too long to make those changes and if he had been younger when he tried some new things he could have established them as regular parts of his arsenal when he still could win majors. His lack of a good return was what always plagued him more than anything else.

Roddick has been poor on clay you knew something wasn't quite right for the past couple of weeks. If he is fit enough for the Grass Court season hopefully he will have yet another good one.

Del Potro thankfully is now back, hope he doesn't have another injury because he is one of the best players in the World. If Del Potro and Gonzalez were both out, I think it would be a slight blow to the French Open, Gonzalez is out but Del Potro is in.

Good News

Gloucester, it depends on Del Pos form he missed Rome and he looks to be a real danger match against Novak in the third round.

socal1976 wrote:Gloucester, it depends on Del Pos form he missed Rome and he looks to be a real danger match against Novak in the third round.

Del Potro v Djokovic - If they do meet and he was to end Novaks run I would say that he is back and for the tops guys to be wary off.

However I don't think it will happen, even a 100% Del P would have his work cut out and I think at present he is a bit short of being there (yet).

Sportslover, I have to concur, Del Potro should get to third round unless his injury is more serious than we believe. But I actually think he is a tougher matchup for Nadal and tougher matchup on hardcourt. He can play on the clay but hopefully he gets fit enough for the US where I think on that fast hardcourt surface he could be a real handful for any of the top players. Interestingly enough it is Murray who seems to handle JMDP the best of the top players. Maybe its that little bit of bad blood they had a couple of years back that puts the fire in Andy's belly.

socal1976 wrote:Sportslover, I have to concur, Del Potro should get to third round unless his injury is more serious than we believe. But I actually think he is a tougher matchup for Nadal and tougher matchup on hardcourt. He can play on the clay but hopefully he gets fit enough for the US where I think on that fast hardcourt surface he could be a real handful for any of the top players. Interestingly enough it is Murray who seems to handle JMDP the best of the top players. Maybe its that little bit of bad blood they had a couple of years back that puts the fire in Andy's belly.

Yes Andy leads the h2h 5-1 the loss being on clay.

It seems that they are now OK with each other (Del Potro apologised for his remarks a few years back) so no big deal there.