On Friday night, Andy Roddick swore, sneered and belittled Emmanuel Joseph, the chair umpire, during the course of a four hour match which he lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber. Using language both crude and blasphemous — and sometimes highly anatomical — he berated the poor official simply because he, the world No. 6, was being made to look like the limited, petulant player he is by a fellow from Germany ranked 27 in the world.
Yet, Roddick walked away with no more than a $500 fine for racket abuse.
While Jimmy Connors looked on, Roddick proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only thing he has learned from the retired champion is how to behave vilely when being beaten.
Connors behaved like a foul-mouthed hooligan and used his racquet in ways that would have surprised even Mapplethorpe, but he could, at least, point to the fact that he was a serial Grand Slam champion. He was the most consistent world No1 in the history of the game (or he was until a certain Swiss came along) and he was pathologically incapable of accepting defeat.
Roddick, on the other hand, is a one slam wonder with a big serve and no clue how to formulate a game plan.
Joseph was clearly not going to take on the American and neither warned nor penalized him despite the torrent of abuse sent his way. Roddick verbally bullied him and got away with it.
Unfortunately for Roddick, these days he can only bully the officials.
A-Rod finds himself overtaken by the likes of Nikolay Davydenko and David Ferrer in the world pecking order.
Everyone knows that the American is there for the taking.
Get the big guy's serve back and then stand back and watch him disintegrate.
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