A Star That Hardly Shined: Andy Roddick

This former world No. 1, also known as 'A-ROD', is an American. He has powerful serves and forehands. He also holds the record for the fastest serve of 155 mph in professional men's tennis in a Davis cup match.

He won the US open in 2003, with it he reached the pinnacle of his career,by the end of that year he was world No. 1 and the youngest American to do so since the rankings started in 1973. But unfortunately it was cut short by Roger Federer in February.

He reached four grand slam finals and won one and lost all three to Roger and reached seven masters finals,two of which he lost to Roger again,all this proves that he has abundant talent to fight it out at the top.

It's unfortunate that players like Federer and Nadal have played in the same era and reached their peak almost at the same time as Andy,which left Andy to be contended with semifinals of the slams.

Had Andy played in a different era he could have stayed on top of the rankings for a longer period of time a and could have won many more slams than what he has done.

Roddick's career was marred by a series of injuries starting from a hamstring injury at Miami masters in 2006 which was followed by knee,shoulder a and neck injuries.

Swapping coaches didn't help the cause either.

Then came French Open 2009, where he had a record of exiting in the very first round in the previous years.He should be glad that he got the monkey of his back by reaching fourth round, and should take confidence from this performance into Wimbledon

This year's Wimbledon is open, with Nadal doubtful and Federer not at his best.

He must be in a good position to reach the second week or even higher.

Hopefully, he proves his A-worth and brings his A-game to SW19.