Why Isn’t Andy Roddick’s Serve Copied More? + Slam Pressure & Ball Selection Secrets | Q&Andy

Summary

Podcast Summary: Served with Andy Roddick

Episode: Why Isn’t Andy Roddick’s Serve Copied More? + Slam Pressure & Ball Selection Secrets | Q&Andy
Date: February 26, 2026
Hosts: Andy Roddick, Jon Wertheim (Q&A format)
Special Guest Insight: Kim Clijsters (audio segment)

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Episode Overview

This Q&A episode, centered around serves, explores the technical, psychological, and practical angles of serving in tennis. Andy Roddick—one of the game’s renowned servers—shares hard-earned insights on ritual and rhythm, ball choice, serve technique, unique habits, and why his motion isn’t widely copied. Questions cover both ATP and WTA perspectives, with Kim Clijsters offering her list of the greatest female servers and Roddick describing the mental strain of serving for a Grand Slam title.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Timing Between First and Second Serve

• Listener Question: How important is the timing between first and second serve?
• "Ritual. I like to just get into it. ...if you wait too long, I have to think that’s similar to, like, freezing the kicker or like calling a timeout between free throws." (Q, 01:10)
• Roddick and Q agree: keeping rhythm and not overthinking between missed first and second serves is preferable. Roddick preferred to control pace and keep the server’s advantage.
• "When I was serving well and when I was on a heater in rhythm... I was trying to fire them off 10, 12 [seconds]. Like, I was trying to rush the pace constantly." (Q, 02:42)

2. Decision-Making and Adjustments in Serve Placement

• Players generally have a plan for serve placement, but returners—like Nadal or Federer—can force quick adaptations.
• "You can have all the ideas in the world and then Rafa takes 12 steps back and it changes." (Q, 03:26)
• Top returners start with a preferred position and only adjust if the server is dominant.

3. Ball Selection: The Inside Scoop

• Listener Question: What’s with selecting three, four, or five balls before serve?
• "Big servers want a smaller ball that travels through the air quicker. Like, I wanted a BB, right? I wanted it to go fast through the court." (Q, 05:36)
• Fluff and court type matter—a "fluffed" ball is slower and more used. Players check for the smallest, least-fluffed balls.
• Some players deliberately fluff the ball or even roll new balls over wet tarps to slow them down (see storytelling below).

4. Pro Habits & Gamesmanship: Ball Tampering

• Roddick details a story from Roland Garros, suggesting subtle gamesmanship in how balls are prepared (wet tarps making balls heavier/slower).
• "I watched them like water the court but they were like, they would fire some water into the tarps... if the tarps are in front of it, they roll through that wet tarp. So all of a sudden the ball has water, which is heavier." (Q, 08:56)
• Memorable moment: "Just a fucking crazy coincidence that they were rolling the ball to the tarps." (Q, 09:06)

5. Serve Techniques: Platform vs. Pinpoint/Stance Analysis

• Listener Question: Platform stance vs. bringing the back foot up—pros and cons?
• Roddick explains "platform" means serving off two feet, requiring more strength, while bringing the foot up (pinpoint) suits more players.
• "For most people, bringing the foot up is probably better because you're getting a little bit of momentum into the jump. You have to be very strong... to platform serve." (Q, 10:05)
• Platform serving is harder on the back long-term.
• Notable: "People are probably surprised by this answer because I'm obviously a platform server. But bringing the foot up is probably the better option for most people." (Q, 11:09)

6. Copycat Mechanics: Why Isn’t Roddick’s Serve Used More?

• Roddick’s serve is unique but rarely copied because it’s hard to learn and potentially hard on young shoulders. He changed to this motion at 16.
• "If you can’t train it your entire life, is that going to be the person you take to the dance?... It’s probably not healthy for a shoulder." (Q, 13:33)
• For him, consistency—"can you get your elbow in the same spot every time on the same count, right"—matters more than front-end motion. (Q, 14:10)
• "I led the tour in first serve percentage one year serving bombs. ...Power, now I needed something that I could repeat as often as possible." (Q, 14:45)

7. Underarm Serves—Should They Be “Taboo”?

• Q: Why is the underarm serve seen as bad form when it’s legal?
• "I have no problem with it. I don't give a shit." (Q, 15:26)
• Roddick would gladly let opponents serve underarm, calling it less effective at the pro level and not something to get upset about.

8. Greatest Servers in the Women's Game (WTA Perspective)

• Roddick's top three: Serena Williams, Elena Rybakina (the best current server), and Martina Navratilova (“1A, 1B” with Serena given era/equipment changes). (Q, 16:30)
• Kim Clijsters segment: (16:58–19:04)
  • Lindsay Davenport: "Definitely one of the harder servers... powerful, good placement, couldn't read the serve."
  • Serena Williams
  • Venus Williams: "Very unpredictable... especially the serve out wide on the ad side."
  • Sam Stosur: "Heavy kick serve... made you do unusual things on the return."
  • Elena Dementieva: "Her second serve... so much slice... nothing you could do with it even though it was slow."

9. Serving for a Grand Slam Title: Mental Experience

• Listener Question: What is it like mentally to serve for a Slam?
• Roddick’s honest account—"All I remember is that there was... I had a second serve return and I was saying to myself, fucking double fault... and guess what happened? He double faulted." (Q, 19:32)
• Once at the line, Roddick trusted routine and rhythm: "The space between points is not your friend." (Q, 20:25)
• He reveals that pressure is more about confidence and preparation than occasion: "For me, getting tight wasn't really circumstantial. It was based in preparation and confidence." (Q, 21:26)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On serve rhythm:
  "If you wait too long, I have to think that's similar to, like, freezing the kicker or like calling a timeout between free throws. I don't know that this space between would ever be beneficial." — Q (01:10)

• On serve ritual:
  "I was trying to rush the pace constantly. So you can control the pace. I always kind of just wanted to get on with it." — Q (02:42)

• On adapting serve:
  "You can have all the ideas... and then Rafa takes 12 steps back and it changes." — Q (03:26)

• On ball selection rituals:
  "Big servers want a smaller ball that travels through the air quicker. Like, I wanted a BB..." — Q (05:36)

• On gamesmanship:
  "Just a fucking crazy coincidence that they were rolling the ball to the tarps..." — Q (09:06)

• On serving style for young players:
  "Bringing the foot up is probably the better option for most people. Unless you're super strong." — Q (11:09)

• On copying his own serve:
  "I switched my motion when I was 16. I think it’s really hard for a 9 or 10 year old to serve off two feet with a half motion..." — Q (13:33)

• On underarm serve 'taboo':
  "I have no problem with it. I don't give a shit." — Q (15:26)

• On pressure and confidence:
  "For me, getting tight wasn’t really circumstantial. It was based in preparation and confidence." — Q (21:26)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:40 | Importance of timing between first and second serve | | 03:09 | Serve placement: premeditation vs. returner adjustment | | 05:25 | Ball selection before serving | | 07:05 | Unusual pro habits/gamesmanship with balls | | 09:18 | Platform stance vs. pinpoint (bringing back foot up) | | 13:21 | Why Andy's serve motion isn't widely copied | | 15:14 | Attitudes toward underarm serves | | 16:21 | Greatest women’s servers (Roddick & Kim Clijsters list) | | 19:04 | Mental state serving for a Grand Slam title | | 21:08 | How pressure differs by round/preparation |

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Flow & Tone

The episode maintains Andy Roddick’s trademark blend of insider candor, humor, and practical advice. Technical specifics are explained accessibly, making it a valuable resource both for tennis fans and players. Roddick and Q are conversational, occasionally irreverent ("I don't give a shit" about underarm serves), but always insightful—whether discussing high-level serve strategy, subtle gamesmanship, or raw confession about nerves and pressure at the highest levels of the sport.

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SUMMARY:
An essential listen (or read) for tennis fans interested in the art and science of the serve: from rituals and technique to psychology and the quirks separating regular joes from tour legends. Andy Roddick draws from his own career and the wider pro experience, offering a no-nonsense, sometimes laugh-out-loud perspective on why the serve is both technical puzzle and personal signature.

Transcript

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Andy Roddick]

Foreign.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Happy Thursday. Welcome to Q and Andy. Subscribe. Producer Mike. What do we got?

[Andy Roddick]

We have a special episode of Q Andy. Because all of them are special.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Why is it so special?

[Andy Roddick]

Well, this week you had the. You had the amazing time speaking with one Christopher Eubanks about serves.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Yes.

[Andy Roddick]

Right?

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Yep.

[Andy Roddick]

And so Ella and our crack team of wonderfully intrepid creators thought, you know what? Our Q and A episode should also be about serves.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Okay. Gotta be honest, I know I talk a lot of shit against me.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Feel pretty fucking good about this.

[Andy Roddick]

I feel like you're doing pretty good with this one.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

All right.

[Andy Roddick]

And just a reminder, thank you guys for sending in all your questions. If you do have questions in the future, follow us on all socials. You can drop comments there or send to ask andyervepodcast.com Please send videos, send voice notes. We'd love to share your.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Or you could just send Micah text messages number seven. Okay, please stop.

[Andy Roddick]

Oh, God. All right. Oh, God. Please, no.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

That'd be fun. That'd be a funny bet.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, that'd be so great.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

It would.

[Andy Roddick]

I would love that. My wife also loves how my phone just beeps all the time. First question from John. How important is the timing between first serve and second serve? It seems it can vary greatly between the players serving and the energy present in the stadium at the time.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

I don't know, maybe this is a lazy take, but I feel like fast players probably take less time in between. I don't know that that's something I've thought about much. Now, this means the pacing. Like, you finish a first serve, you miss it, and then when you get up and do it again. Yeah, ritual. I like to just get into it. I probably wouldn't want to. I mean, if you wait too long, I have to think that's similar to, like, freezing the kicker or like calling a timeout between free throws. I don't know that this space between would ever be beneficial. Now sometimes you have to kind of call your off because someone will say something in the stands and if, you know. But I could argue that this just is beneficial to like, surf through it. You know, your opponent's listening for something. Like if I heard a cat, some sort of call or like something, people start whistling. I might be more motivated just to surf through it.

[Andy Roddick]

Just go fast.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Yeah, because like, the returner is trying to. Has to pay attention too. So, like as a server, one of the benefits is you control the timing and you can push the pace. Like when I was serving well and when I was on a heater in rhythm, it's a 24 second clock, but it's server's pace. I was trying to fire him off 10, 12. Like I was trying to rush the pace constantly. So you can control the pace. I never thought about much in between. I always kind of just wanted to get on with it.

[Andy Roddick]

So this actually brings into the next question, because I was, I was really curious about that process of kind of first and second and deciding, you know, are you predetermining where you're going to go with your first serve when you walk up to it and then knowing maybe what your second serve's going to be?

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Yeah, you have a general idea. But the only caveat being the returner doesn't always stand for the first serve return where they stand for the second serve return. So you can have all the ideas in the world and then Rafa takes 12 steps back and it changes. If he's up, all of a sudden, that brings in, okay, I can run it 112 in on his body, you know, whereas if he's back, you don't want to run it in on his body because all of a sudden that's going to be the forehand, right. And he's going to find some space and it's going to get high. So you're either taking him out or you're going to the back end. So, yeah, I mean, when you step up to the line, you know where you're going to go on a first serve. But then if someone steps a foot and a half to the right to take away a wide serve, that changes, you know, then you're going to have to decide in two seconds where you're going to go quickly. The return position dictates a lot of the serving decisions. If the returner is making the right decision. Does that make sense?

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah, yeah.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Like, you know, there are bad returners that could stand anywhere and I probably wouldn't give too much credit to where they're standing. You know, if Novak Roger, Hewitt, Murray, they kind of all. They basically would stand one way and then they would only adjust if you were having a great day serving.

[Andy Roddick]

Right.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Like they would, they would switch it up, but they would, they would adjust

[Andy Roddick]

their game plan based on.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

They always, like, they would always start with the same game plan in your mind. The preference for Rafo is always to go as far back as possible on a second serve because he can create the spin. Roger wanted to hit, lay that chip down to me and then react off of it. Murray has that, like, we all can see that big long like hop step and then he wants to stick it. Novak, they, Novak and Murray want to be inside the court making contact with a second serve. If, if they start going way back, that means you've won the first battle.

[Andy Roddick]

Right.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

But then now you have to deal with the, the adjustment. Right. So to get the top players off of their preferred mark was great. And then you had to deal with like the next set of circumstances.

[Andy Roddick]

This next one's for Michael. Can you talk about ball selection before, sir? I see some pros want three, but some want four or five. What are you really looking for to decide which two you keep?

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Yep. So big servers want a smaller ball that travels through the air quicker. Like, I wanted a bb, right. I wanted it to go fast through the court. I don't know if.

[Andy Roddick]

What do you mean, smaller ball? Like it. Let's fluff on it. Let's like. Yeah.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

So if you play, if you just played like a 18 ball rally in Indian Wells where the court is like, like you're. If you rub your hand on this table, it's smooth. So this isn't going to call the cause the ball to fluff up because it scoots through like grass. You don't get it, you know, super fluffed up. Whereas Indian Wells, you know, it looks like what, you know those troll dolls from when you're like 11 or 12 years old where you pick the hair. That's what it looks like after a long rally. So you want to discard that one because that's had a lot of use. And if there's a newer option that hasn't been used much in the last two games, it's smaller because it hasn't been fluffed up yet. So then it resets every seven and nine games. And so you're looking for like the small BBs. Because I want my serve to get through the court. I don't want my serve to go slower and bounce less. Right. I wanted to go faster and bounce more. So When I take three, I'm looking for the smallest ones, right. And if, if there's no good option, then I'll discard two and take another one. You know, five seems, you know, excessive. But yeah, you're looking like big servers are looking for the little darts.

[Andy Roddick]

Now.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

I don't know if someone like an Andre would want. Normally you're looking for a smaller one, so your server is more effective.

[Andy Roddick]

Did. Can you think of any. This is also kind of a second part of Michael's question. Do you have any stories of pros doing odd habits with like, getting the

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

ball or like 100%? Yeah. Like the. You would look across and you'd see, you know, if you're having a great serving day, you would see, you know, people like, if you ever see him rubbing a ball on their shorts, they're trying to fluff up the ball. So, like, if you have someone like, and I'm not saying he did this, I'm just thinking of someone who's kind of sweaty and wants the ball a little bit slower. Walrinka. Right. Like, if he's there and he's rubbing that, it's because he knows he can create more speed than you off the baseline. So it doesn't need the benefit of like a little dart and he doesn't want the serve going any faster. So, like, you see people like rubbing it like this. That means the balls, they're trying to fluff up the ball. Like, I remember a match. I'm sure I'll get in trouble for this. I remember a match where at Roland Garros, anytime I played a French guy, I knew I was not going to be on center. I was going to be out on Suzanne Longland because it plays generally slower than center court. And I remember I was playing around a 16 one year I was ranked like 4 and I was playing Mumfis, where Mumfis, he only plays on center, right? So I'm like, okay, they can't possibly put this match on Suzanne Langland. And I might get like a day where it's like 2 o' clock in the afternoon, sure as shit. Last match, Suzanne Langland again against Mom Feast. I'm like, I watched them water the tarps. So the tarps that sit in the back of the court, that when it rains, you see people hustle and pull them across so they're like wet rubber. But like when they're sitting, they make like a little like the, the sides are, you know, it swells into the bottom, right? I watched them like water the court but they were like, they would fire some water into the tarps. And then what do the ball kids do when they get the new balls? They throw them back to the ball kids at the back of the court.

[Andy Roddick]

They roll them, right? They roll them along the side.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

And if the tarps are in front of it, they roll through that wet tarp. So all of a sudden the bottle, the ball has water, which is heavier. Anyways, I lost him on feast. 3, 4 and 2.

[Andy Roddick]

That's crazy.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Just a fucking crazy coincidence that they were rolling the ball to the tarps.

[Andy Roddick]

Just crazy coincidence. Wow, what a coincidence when it was

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

8 o' clock at night and 42 degrees with wet balls. Super.

[Andy Roddick]

All right, so talk to me about this question from Brian. Can you discuss the pros and cons of the platform stance serve and the bring the back foot up serve? Which should a young player learn and why?

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

So the platform, like, everyone's like, you are platform server. But then I see people try to platform serve and their feet are so far apart, which means that the push is pretty hard. Like, if you look at most of the platform servers who have been really good. Pete, Roger, my serve, the stance is narrow and their thrust is pretty intense. So if you don't have the leg strength, you can't get away with platform serving. Like, if you don't have, like, Marcus Giron quads, the platform serve might not be for you. Okay, can. Can we quickly describe what is a platform serve versus a. It's simple. Platform serve is serving off of two feet. I don't know what they call the other one, but it's when you bring like, you slide your foot up. So like, if you. So Carlos, when he serves, brings his right foot up and then launches. Right. Jannik used to be a platform server, and now he brings his right foot up before he launches. If you look at old videos of Pete Sampras, he serves off of two feet. Like, he doesn't bring the back foot up to the front foot before. Before launching. Right. So platform is serving off of two feet, basically, that are spread apart. Cool. I would say for most people, bringing the foot up is probably better because you're getting like a little bit of momentum into the jump. You have to be very strong. You have to be super strong to platform serve. Super strong platform. I notice now when I'm 40 something years old and not like trained to be an athlete, platform serving hurts me more. Like my back and stuff because you have to twist over the top. Probably didn't do me any favors with the way My back feels now long term.

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

But you, you rarely see like a ton of super. Like you don't see Isner platform serve. You don't see a lot of the Giants platform serve. Evan Eovich Becker was a great platform server, but he like you look at his quads, he could thrust into it I'd say for most people, and people are probably surprised by this answer because I'm obviously a platform server. But bringing the foot up is probably the better option for most people. Unless you're super strong. Monster Energy. Everybody knows White Monster Zero Ultra, that's the OG it kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing. But Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vibrant Spice Guava. And they all bring the Monster Energy punch. So if you've been living in the white can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe and every single one is Zero Sugar. Tap the banner to learn more.

[Andy Roddick]

You, you actually, you brought up Alcaraz and how he brings his back foot up and there was a lot of news to start the beginning of the year that he was literally copy copying Novak's serve.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Novak is a platform server and but

[Andy Roddick]

so that's, that's what I'm wondering about. Everyone was talking about how now his serve looks almost exactly like Novak and that was at the beginning of the year. Right. Like people were talking like the joke was that he had like copyrighted it. Yeah.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Djokovic made a joke about he wants a percentage of Alcarez's winnings after he. I see it, it might have been the serving motion, not the platform versus the it's so I mean Novak serves off of two feet as a platform server and Alcaraz doesn't. So that's not accurate. Now the take back like Novak used to kind of take a full big swing and like his service motion, people forget like it wasn't great when he, he won the, when he won his first major. It was like he was throwing grenades on the second, second, second serve. Like it was from here. And the way that he's tightened it up and rounded out the bottom of it, which is what we've talked about with Alcaraz before. So maybe the start point in like kind of how you get to the trophy position looks like Novak but their feet are not even. They're not similar at all. I just, I just googled it. It looked like it was more upper body has to be because the lower body is like completely different.

[Andy Roddick]

Well so I think that lends to the Question from Keith, who said, you have one of the most unique and effective serves in the history of the game, yet your motion doesn't seem copied very often. Why do you think that is?

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

So I switched my motion when I was 16. I think it's really hard for like a 9 or 10 year old to serve off of 2ft with a half motion. It's probably not healthy for a shoulder. So if you can't train it your entire life, is that going to be the person you take to the dance? Right? Like is that going to be what you're going to deal with? I don't think so. I switched. I'll tell you something about serving right now. Like I don't actually care too much about the front end of the serve. It's can you get your elbow in the same spot every time on the same count, right. Like I used to when I was training my serve and something was off, I would, I had like a 1, 2, 3, like there was a counter. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. There was a start. This is 2, 3 is through, right? As long as you can time it and get into that position consistently with a little space for your elbow, I don't actually care how you get there. Right. Like Isner goes down, is longer but gets to that same spot every time consistently. Pete's is completely different for me, I just down, up. I had enough leg strength and enough arm strength to where adding any moving parts just meant that I was probably going to serve him. Lower percentage. One of the things I'm like stat that doesn't get talked about and I'm not one to like give self serving stats here. I led the tour and first serve percentage one year serving bombs. So for me it's like I had the power now I needed something that I could repeat as often as possible. And so straight down, straight up, boom. Like I could get away with it. But you know, I, I, I think I had the skill set to be able to get away with it. So it's not something I would advise like a 10 year old to do, which is probably why it's not copied.

[Andy Roddick]

This next question is from Steven. It says as someone who's relatively new to tennis and not new to sports, I don't quite understand why the underarm serve is considered bad form. It's technically legal. Can you explain?

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

I have no problem with it. I don't give a shit.

[Andy Roddick]

Like why do people give a shit?

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Then I would, I would hear simply like I would happily give my opponents 20% of my winnings. If they just decided to serve on our hand the entire time, I don't care. It's one of those rules where it's like. Like, the dumbest rule in golf is, like, you hit it into a divot in the middle of the fairway and you have to play it. It's like, you did what you wanted to, and now you're penalized for it when it's very obvious what happened. Like, it rolled into, like, it's. That's not part of the course. Right. Serving underhand and someone being pissed about it. Like, it's a less effective serve at the pro level. Like, I don't know. Like, never mad at it. Don't care. Anyone gets mad at. I'm like, get over it. I'm. I'm fully with you. I don't. I don't. I don't care. Hey, Andy, it's Vivek here from Atlanta, Georgia. My question for you is, who do you think are some of the greatest servers in the history of the women's game? Thank you.

[Andy Roddick]

I do want to get your opinion on, but I also thought it'd be fun. After you kind of give your opinion, we'd love to toss it to Kim Kleister's, and I'll answer if that's cool.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Yeah, Serena's going to be the top name on every list. Um, Robakin is the best server in the game now. Martina Navratilova is. Right. Like, I think people too quickly say Serena is the best serve of all time when considering the equipment and everything else. Martinez, serve right there. 1A, 1B. Those would be my. Those would be my. My three.

[Andy Roddick]

Awesome. Let's see what Kim has to say.

[Commercial Narrator]

I made a top five in random order. But thinking back about early on in the 2000s, Lindsay Davenport was definitely one of the harder servers to play against. Couldn't read the serve. Powerful, good placement. She had all the variety. So really hard to return her serve. Serena Williams, obviously, she's on everybody's list. Venus as well, I think Venus, her first serve, very unpredictable. She could hit a variety of shots, especially the serve out wide on the. On the ad side was very, very tough. Hard to. To read at times as well. And then I'm going to go with the Aussie, Sam Stoser, the heavy kick serve that I think a lot of women hated, and especially because on the AD side, where she hits that kick serve to the backhand. And I always found it confusing to know, should I step in and take it on the rise or should I take a Step back and kind of wait till it drops a little bit. So definitely made you do some unusual things out there on the return. And then my fifth one is maybe not for the reasons that people think, but I'm going to go with, like, Elena Dementieva. Her second serve, she definitely hit double folds, but her second serve at times had so much slice, like, she used to have her ball toss where she would throw it way to the right and there would only be slice on it and the ball wouldn't really jump up. So it was. You knew that it was going to be a slow serve and it was going to land in the middle of the serving box, but there was nothing you could do with it. And that was really frustrating. And so definitely missed too many returns on Dementia's second serve. But, yeah, I think that's my. My five female players.

[Andy Roddick]

All right, Andy, last question. This is from Alec. What's it like mentally serving for a Grand Slam title? What was going on in your head? Are you thinking at all, or is it just pure adrenaline?

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

I'll tell you this, I'll walk you through the moment where I broke at 4, 3. I was up two sets. I broke at 4, 3 up in the third set.

[Andy Roddick]

Is that right?

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

I don't know. All I remember is that there was. I had a second serve return and I was saying to myself, fucking double fault, Double fault, double fault, double fault, double fault, double fault. And guess what happened? He double faulted. I don't really remember it. I hit three aces in a service winner, four straight. It would seem like I breezed through that. If I miss that first serve and get down 15, like, love 15 changes the entire pressure set. I hit a good serve. The first point, hit my spots, was going to, you know, try to bleed him out wide. I knew on the switchover what was happening. It wasn't as if I blacked out. I knew what was at stake. Just made the first one. And then I. We talked about, like, the shot clock on serving. As soon as I made the first one, I go sitting around and thinking about, this is not going to do me any favors.

[Andy Roddick]

Just go.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

I got through that service game. And I don't know the exact time, but it was a. Maybe a minute, right? Like, and if I was Ferrer, I. I would have been delaying, I would have been putting the hand up. I would have been trying to at least make me think about it a little bit. But, yeah, I was through that pretty quick. But I was aware. But even at 40, love, you know, you're cooking it's like, gosh, okay, just. Just get, like, it seems, you know, you could be done in two seconds and you're a U.S. open champion, or you know that there's still three hours of life left if this goes the wrong way. So I just. I. I cooked the shot clock. I didn't want to take a lot of time in between. I just stepped up. And, like, once I got on a roll, I'm like, the space between points is not your friend, was it?

[Andy Roddick]

What was it? All right, so obviously the magnitude of that situation isn't lost in you as it is a student of the game, but could you say there was an equivalent to, like, the first time you went on tour and feeling that same pressure, and then each time you won, obviously it changed that pressure.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

You feel pressure serving out a set?

[Andy Roddick]

Yeah.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

Right. I mean, the only difference is when you're in a Grand Slam final, you're pretty confident with the way you're playing. Like I always said, I felt more nervous, unprepared during a second round match. Like, I lost a Yanko Tip Serovich coming off of an injury one year at Wimbledon, I knew I had hardly any reps. My shoulder wasn't great, and I felt like I completely choked. Like, he was throwing in second serves and I was hacking returns in the bottom of the net. Where for me, getting tight wasn't really circumstantial. It was based in preparation and confidence. Like, if I was lacking confidence and felt like I maybe wasn't prepared, then all of a sudden it's like, can I play six hours? I don't know. Like, I. Have I been able to train? Not as much as I'd like to. That would make me nervous more so than, like, I knew if I was in the semis or finals, I might lose. Right. But, like, generally, I don't know that. I laid, like, a ton of eggs in those matches. Later stage, I at least knew that I was playing. Okay, that's cool.

[Andy Roddick]

These are great questions, and we appreciate all of them from all the listeners.

[Q (Interviewer/Host)]

This has been Q and Andy Wolf.