Andy Roddick explains how he created No 1 tennis podcast in US: ‘It’s a nice little gig’
Andy Roddick has called his podcast, Served with Andy Roddick, a ‘nice little gig’ after the show reached the No 1 spot in the US tennis podcast charts.
The show began in January 2024 and has grown to over 150,000 subscribers on YouTube, with a similar number of followers on Instagram.
Roddick, who is a former world No 1 and the 2003 US Open champion, was known for being extremely likeable behind a microphone – whether after winning or losing – and has been a long-time contributor to the Tennis Channel production.
It is just one of two tennis podcasts to land itself within the top 100 sport podcasts on the Apple podcast charts in the US.
“I don’t know that we thought it was going to really be anything, which was kind of a superpower,” Roddick admitted, in an interview with the National.
“Because if you don’t have any expectations, you’re not really scared of anything.
“For me it’s been great, because I’m a bit of a tennis nerd, and so when we can invite people on, I can ask them all the questions that I would never bother them with in private.
“So selfishly it’s a nice little gig.”
Jon Wertheim, tennis commentator and frequent co-host of Roddick’s podcast, believes that the one-time Grand Slam champion is the perfect individual for such a medium.
“He’s sort of the Hall of Fame resume with the perspective of the common fan who is still asking questions,” the commentator observed.
“I feel like he’s always been, from when he was a teenager, he’s always been very witty. And there’s in element of self-deprecation that comes with it.
“He’s very observant. He’s good at communicating in plain speak. And he’s sort of this mixture of … he sees the game through a fan’s [eyes]. There’s not this curse of expertise.
“He understands the fan’s perspective, but also has this accumulated knowledge of having played in major finals.
“I think sports in general, people watch the actual competition less and less, but they care more and more about everything else in the community. So I think that was something we thought we were going to be tapping into.”
Since its launch, Served with Andy Roddick has welcomed a range of tennis players – both past and present – including Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi, Iga Swiatek, Lindsay Davenport, Aryna Sabalenka, and Madison Keys.
Latest Tennis News
Alexander Zverev laments ‘terrible’ season before vowing to deliver his ‘best tennis’ at US Open
What Naomi Osaka had to say about her new coach Tomasz Wiktorowski
At the end of 2024, Vox Media announced that it would be handling the podcast’s marketing and distribution roles.
“Here was kind of the general thought with producer Mike when we were looking at it – Earth pays attention to tennis eight weeks a year [during the Grand Slams], right? In unison. That’s a lot of football field left,” added Roddick.
“And there was really no place on a random Tuesday to go get a story told, or get an update on tournaments that you couldn’t watch for time zone reasoning or anything else.
“So our idea was kind of try to attack that open space a little bit more and provide a little bit of continuity.
“Not something here, something there, but every Tuesday when you wake up, it’ll be there. And if you care enough to listen to it, then great.
“We didn’t think that we needed a studio, we didn’t think we needed all of the things if the storytelling was good enough; whether it be first-person experience, or other people who were smarter coming on and giving us their time.
“My stance is, I think it’s okay to, I don’t want to say criticise, but to have an opinion on someone, as long as you tell the reason why, whatever it is, is hard. I think for a long time, tennis analysts have acted almost like it’s too easy.
“You don’t want to be the player that walked uphill both ways to school. So if you have a criticism, say, this person’s struggling, this pattern is hard, explain why. Why it’s a struggle and how they can improve.
“Don’t just say, this person’s playing badly, I think that’s generally lazy.”
