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2008-03-13 09:14:00
In a surprise decision, Andy Roddick announced on Wednesday that he will play the Legg Mason Classic in Washington, D.C in lieu of making a bid for Olympic gold this August in Beijing. I think many Americans, including myself are asking themselves the same question. Huh? On first glance, this choice is just so...strange. The Olympic gold medalist in tennis earns 400 ranking points from the ATP compared to just 200 for the Washington winner, which means that the potential reward for participating in the Olympics is greater. Not to mention the fact that "Olympic gold medalist" sounds a lot more impressive than "Legg Mason Classic winner".
And even if the gold medalist won nothing except the medal itself, this decision still wouldn't make sense. Roddick absolutely LOVES playing Davis Cup. He plays religiously, and has stated that winning the Davis Cup for the United States (which he finally helped accomplish in 2007) was one of his dreams. Obviously, the guy likes playing for his country. And yet when he has the opportunity to do so on perhaps the biggest stage of all, he backs out.
His official statement is that he prefers to stay in the United States on hard courts so that he can better prepare for the US Open. It's actually not a bad reason, but it just seems like there has to be more to it. Beijing, after all, is not without controversy. Several Olympic athletes have expressed serious concerns about the quality of the air in Beijing, Justine Henin among them. The smog that envelops the city is not just unhealthy, but can be downright dangerous. Some of Roddick's most staunch supporters have even suggested that perhaps he is taking a stand against China's human rights policies, and this is why he has chosen not to play. Both reasons are viable, but I don't think they get to the crux of the matter.
As it turns out, Andy Roddick has a sports management group. This isn't a surprise of course; all of the top athletes have one. Roddick's firm is SFX, based out of Washington DC. In addition to managing the careers of many athletes, they also manage a tennis tournament every year – you guessed it. The Legg Mason Classic. It occurred to me that The Legg Mason Classic folks (read SFX) would have been none too thrilled with the fact that probably every player in the top 20 will elect to play in the Olympics. It's not good for ticket sales if fans don't recognize the name of the number one seed. But as luck would have it, Andy Roddick is now available!
What a happy coincidence.
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