Demoralized

Well.

Maybe its time I faced facts about Andy Roddick.

I don't want to, but with tonight's crushing by Djokovic, I think some reasessing maybe in order.

I've been a fan on Andy's since the moment I started getting into tennis about 8 years ago. He is a big part of the reason I even began to watch tennis.

I've dealt with the fact that Federer is number 1. I dealt with that when Andy was #2. I thought "well #2 ain't too bad!".

I dealt with the fact that Nadal was number 2. I thought "well, at least some of that pressure is off Andy. Its ok to be number three when the other two guys are so unbelievable."

At the same time, I still believed that on a good day for Andy, he could beat them. Granted, it would have to be on maybe one of their not-so-good days, but hey, those happen, right? But Nadal, he's as good on grass and hard courts as Andy, right?

Then Nadal stepped up his game.

And so has everyone else. Djokovic announced to Andy tonight that he is number three now, and I can only see this as a trend.

I mean, its hard enough to think there is no way to beat Federer, but to have two or three other guys you can never beat too? I say that because Roddick keeps on meeting people on their "unbeatable" days. I mean, looka t what happened against Gasquet in Wimbledon. Up a break in the third, and Gasquet came BACK!?!?!?!?!! And Andy wasn't playing bad! That's the shit part! He keeps on playing great against these guys.

These guys aren't beating him, he isn't beating himself. These guys are just WINNING.

So - the demoralizing part of this is that Andy is 24 - 25 next month. How long do you put your heart and soul and belief in the fact that you can beat these guys when you keep getting better and better, and so do they? It makes you grateful that he had his moment at #1, he won the US Open. That's huge. But its demoralizing because the sad reality is that that may be it for him. A player so good that will be relagated to being a "One Slam Wonder". Never truly get the respect he deserves.

It pains me as a person who lives and dies by every point he plays. It pains me even more to think of him not even playing at all (What am i going to do then!?!?!?!?!)

Man - this is depressing...