Ah, the phases of celebrity. After 10 years in the spotlight, Andy Roddick feels like he’s endured them all.
“I feel like I’m on the defensive quite a bit,” said Roddick at a news conference Monday, when asked about his treatment by the media. “Coming up, I was the young, eager one. Then they tried to turn me into Zac Efron. Then you’re the punk. Then you’re the has-been. All the while, the meat and potatoes of who I am hasn’t changed.”
Then Roddick, who plays his first match at the Legg Mason Classic Wednesday, showed a bit of his media savvy as he answered (or deflected) some other questions. Asked how his recent marriage to model Brooklyn Decker (who has stayed away this week) has helped him cope, he deadpanned, “Yeah, we like to cry each other to sleep at night.”
And when we wondered if the three-time Legg Mason champ is more excited to come to Washington this year, given the new president and the city’s new buzz, he said he’d been here only 36 hours, so he couldn’t judge how the city’s changed under President Barack Obama. “That’s a little bit above me intellectually. I wish I could go there with you.”
But he did say with another day off tomorrow “there’s a lot worse places to worry about filling a day.”
Roddick was a no-show Sunday night, as the tournament’s social calendar got underway with a cocktail party at L2 in Georgetown. On hand were former tournament finalist John Isner, 2009 French Open finalist Robin Soderling, Martin Damm and Daniel Nestor. Also spotted: Washington Kastles owner Mark Ein and Mayor Adrian Fenty, who doesn’t seem to miss a sports-related event in D.C. these days.
Photo: Carrie Devorah
