Andy Roddick could beat an average player with a frying pan
Found this article on ESPN.com today. It is called “Could Roddick beat an average player with a frying pan?”
Andy Roddick is a 25-year-old professional tennis player with 23 ATP titles to his credit, including the 2003 U.S. Open. Having spent his entire childhood training on the tennis court, sometimes for as many as 10 hours a day, he now has the ability to strike shots at speeds and with a level of accuracy that are almost impossible to comprehend. Andy has hit the fastest serve ever recorded, at 155 mph. If you had never played tennis before and hit with Andy, you would immediately understand that you were dealing with an incredible athlete. You wouldn’t win a point and would possibly get injured by one of his serves.
I play tennis, too! While Roddick was the world’s No. 1 player, I made it to No. 2 on my high school team the season I played. Like Roddick, I can hit all of the shots. Unlike Andy, I can’t hit any of them particularly well or with any kind of power or placement. I hit my first serve around 105 mph, which is slower than his second serve, and it doesn’t have anywhere near the kind of action Andy’s ball does. I pray to God the first one goes in, because if it doesn’t, I could easily double fault.
The best way to make the comparison is to say that there’s no comparison. Roddick spends his time plowing through opponents in major tournaments, while I spend too much time on my couch watching him do so. Still, like Roddick, I am a tennis player and a competitive guy, so although I never had the dedication or the talent to play at his level, I wanted to know what a win over a player as great as he is felt like. In my heart I knew that I had what it took to beat him. I just had to figure out an unfair way to do it.
As to how unfair, well, that would take some thought. While someone with no tennis experience would not win a point from Andy in a set, I probably wouldn’t have a prayer of winning more than a point or two either. This is, in part, because I’m not that good, but also because the difference between a recreational player and an actual pro might be greater in tennis than in any other sport.
The story continues and is a very entertaining read. The story is actually an excerpt from Todd Gallagher’s book “Andy Roddick Beat Me With a Frying Pan — Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports Fans’ Burning Questions.”
One of the comments at the end of the story is this: “No one on my college team could break into triple figures on a serve…..Todd, there is no way you serve 105 when Federer first serve average was 119 in US Open final…..but nevertheless, a very entertaining article.”
I don’t know where he went to college, but I’m not a Divison 1A college-level player and I can serve a 105 mph serve, though, not super consistently like any professional or college player could.