Andy Roddick gets the final word on rivalry with Roger Federer: A ‘good time’ to train for Wimbledon

Tennis champion Andy Roddick joked about making an appearance at Wimbledon following longtime rival Roger Federer’s retirement announcement. 

The tennis world is still reeling from the unexpected announcement that Roger Federer would be retiring from the tennis court at 41 years old.

It’s already been a year of historic retirements, with Serena Williams hanging up her racket at 40 following her US Open exit, but many believed that Federer was working his way back to the court.

In light of his retirement, longtime rival Andy Roddick had the perfect response: looks like Wimbledon has freed up for Roddick’s return.

Andy Roddick teases Wimbledon return in light of Roger Federer’s retirement

Roddick clarifies that he’s just kidding around, but especially after seeing Francis Tiafoe lose to eventual US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, it wouldn’t hurt to see the last American man to win a major compete at Wimbledon with his longtime rival now retired.

Over the course of their careers, Federer and Roddick faced each other in ATP matches 24 times, with Federer leading the rivalry 21–3. In terms of the number of matches played, it ranks at No. 14 among the most prolific men’s rivalries in the Open Era, but anyone who saw them play in the 2009 Wimbledon final may rank them at No. 1.

Just weeks before Federer’s retirement, Roddick believed that Federer would continue his career beyond the Laver Cup, which takes place in London from Sept. 23-25.

"“Well, he’s scheduled for two events later this year. He’ll play in the Laver Cup, which is awesome, because it actually has Rafa, Roger, Novak and Andy Murray all on the same team for the first time ever for Team Europe, which is pretty cool. It’s like the Dream Team in Barcelona when all the NBA guys went over [in 1992].But I think what Roger is probably going to be looking for is… I think he’s smart to go back at these tournaments. The workload will be a little less. He’s going to play there, and he’s going to play in his hometown tournament in Basel. I think we’re gonna get a little bit of a read: is he going to play singles at Laver Cup? Is it just going to be doubles? Are we going to get to see what his movements like on that knee that’s had all those operations?I think the question is: will we see him playing grueling Grand Slam events again, right? Three out of five sets of which you have to win 21 sets over the course of 14 days. Can his body handle that?I would guess that he doesn’t even know that yet. But the good news is we will see them on the tennis court in a professional setting again. Hopefully we’ll see him at places like Wimbledon and the US Open again. But listen: time is undefeated. It’ll get Roger at some point. I just hope it’s not anytime too soon.”"

Roddick was all too right about time getting Roger at some point, but none of us — not even Andy — wanted nor expected it to come so soon.

Despite Roddick and Federer featuring in some of the greatest tennis matches of all time, with Federer often coming away with the major win, Roddick is always here to champion great tennis players, period.