‘Craziest s***’ – Andy Roddick reveals how Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff blew him away at US Open and Wimbledon
Andy Roddick admits Carlos Alcaraz has joined a very select list of tennis players who have completely blown him away this year.
Despite being out for more than four months with a wrist injury, Alcaraz has made a seamless transition back into competitive tennis after reaching the US Open quarter-finals.
The 23-year-old dismissed 21st seed Tommy Paul on Sunday in a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win to take his winning streak at Grand Slams to 18 matches – a run that includes last year’s US Open and this year’s Australian Open.
When asked if he felt like he was back to full physical power, the Spaniard said, “I think so. I didn’t expect to reach [at least] the quarter-finals here every year since 2021, so that shows how special this place is to me.
“It shows how good I play every time I come here. It doesn’t matter that I was out for four and a half months: Every time that I come here, I play my best.”
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Then, in an eventful interview with Roddick and the rest of the ESPN crew, Alcaraz revealed he thought he would play the winner of Frances Tiafoe and Daniil Medvedev, before learning it was actually Ben Shelton or Stefanos Tsitsipas.
And just before that, former world No 1 Roddick was almost left speechless by Alcaraz’s answer. Along with Coco Gauff‘s comments at Wimbledon, the American was lost for words again this year.
He said on Served, “He [Alcaraz] said some of the craziest s*** I’ve ever heard when he came to the desk afterwards. The craziest s*** I’ve heard this year on the ESPN desk was when Coco played 87 straight three setters at Wimbledon and we dared ask her about recovery.
“I ask her and she goes, ‘I’ll do an ice bath because they tell me to do it. And you know, I guess I should’. She goes, ‘I remember, I was tired one time on the court ever when I was 14 years old’. One time. She remembered!”
Roddick then explained how Alcaraz – who has dropped just one set so far this tournament – was asked if he was well and truly “back” following his victory over Paul.
“He kind of does roundabout answer, but then he goes, ‘I guess I just learned that I don’t really need to play tournaments or matches or have rhythm’,” said the 2003 US Open champion.
“The followup was, I asked the craziest question apparently that’s ever existed in the history of questions. So I understood zero of what he said because all of us need rhythm when we play and all of us need to play matches and tournaments. And so I kind of just looked and blinked aggressively at him for a second.”
Next up, Alcaraz takes on Shelton in the last eight, while Gauff takes on teenage compatriot Iva Jovic in the round of 16.
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