He then reached the world's top ranking one month later in November on the way to winning 26 career singles ATP Tour tournaments.

In 2004 Roddick served up the world's fastest serve ever at 155 miles per hour, a stunning record which still stands today.

But then the former number one Roger Federer of Switzerland would combine his allcourt power and remarkable overall consistency to dominate men's tennis starting in 2003 to win 13 career singles grand slam titles, one short of the all time men's leader, Sampras with 14.

Federer ruled the Roddick head to head, racing to an oddly one-sided 16-2 lead. And before Roddick could solve the Federer puzzle, surprisingly a Spanish lefthander who in previous years had favored the claycourts, would emerge as an all surface player last year.

Rafael Nadal of Spain, the current ATP Tour world number one had never lost a match at the French Open through last year, winning in Paris the last four years for a record of 28-0. And then last summer after developing then executing a more aggressive baseline attacking game, Nadal took the Wimbledon and the Summer Olympic titles before last month winning the Australian Open title as well.

Roddick has fared better against Nadal, holding a 2-4 head to head record versus the Spaniard. However Nadal and Federer have contested six total grand slam finals, including three of the last four.

Lost among the Nadal versus Federer rivalry has been Roddick who again bowed out at this year's Australian Open semifinals to Federer 6-2, 7-5, 7-5. But Roddick and his supporters can take optimism from the facts that he along with Federer are the only two players to have finished in the ATP Tour rankings in the top 10 the last seven years, and that Roddick, now ranked 6th, upset the defending Australian Open champion, Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the quarterfinals.

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