Roddick Brothers Ready for Tennis Classic

Sept. 21, 2011

NORMAN, Okla. - Oklahoma men's tennis coach John Roddick will take to the courts with his brother Andy Roddick in a doubles matchup against Mardy Fish and David Martin on Sunday, Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. at the Oklahoma Energy Tennis Classic inside the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.

"It will be a lot of fun to go out there with my brother, Mardy and Dave who I all know very well having coached all those guys when they were younger," John Roddick said. "For me, it will be a lot of fun to go out and play with them. It is not an opportunity that we get very often with everyone's hectic schedules. It's something we are all looking forward to."

John's familiarity with each of the famed tennis stars stems back to 1998 when Andy, Fish and Martin attended their final year of high school together at Boca Prep in Boca Raton, Fla. There the trio played basketball and tennis alongside one another and John, a world-class player before back injuries ended his professional career, took to the courts as a mentor and coach to the three rising tennis stars.

"We had a group of six guys and they were all very good," John explained. "They worked really hard and the thing that made that group so special was that they not only worked hard, but they competed against each other. When one guy would improve then the other guys would as well, because they were always trying to outdo each other. That was why, as a group, they had so much success, either on the tour or in college."

Before taking over as an assistant coach at Florida State in 1999, John primarily worked with talented youngsters Fish and Martin. With John as his coach, Fish went from virtually unranked internationally to No. 8 in the world junior's rankings.

John served as Andy's coach from 2006-08, where the tandem reached the 2006 U.S. Open Finals and won three titles at the 2006 Cincinnati Master Series, Dubai Tennis Championships and the Davis Cup, both in 2007. In 2008, Andy improved to 3-0 against the top-three ranked players and downed then-No. 1 Roger Federer to advance to the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open.

The Roddick brothers will have their hands full Sunday as the duo tries to take down Fish, No. 117 in the ATP doubles standings, and 92nd-ranked Martin. Andy reached a career-high doubles ranking of No. 50 in 2010 and currently sits at No. 117, while John reached a doubles plateau of 517 before his professional career came to an abrupt end.

For John, Sunday marks his first competitive match in over four years. The last time he hit the courts was in October of 2007 when he and Andy took on the world's No. 1 doubles team comprised of Mike and Bob Bryan at the PNC Tennis Classic in Baltimore, MD.

"I'm going to try to hold my own and hopefully Andy can help me out a little bit," John said. "We are out there to have fun, entertain the crowd, have good points and play as well as we can."

Following the doubles match the two highest-ranked American men will battle it out on the court as seventh-ranked Fish takes on No. 14 Roddick.

A portion of proceeds from the Oklahoma Energy Tennis Classic will go towards the pending QuickStart Tennis project at the OKC Tennis Center.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Roddick Brothers Ready for Tennis Classic

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