US Open Betting / Ralph Ellis / 02 September 2009 /

After last night's flawless win in the first round of the US Open, Andy Murray remains Ralph Ellis' top tip at Flushing Meadow. However, another Andy needs to be taken seriously too...

So is this the year when the big four becomes the big five? No, not football, we're talking tennis now and the US Open.

My betting.betfair colleague Barry Millns last week expertly summed up the prospects of the top four seeds at Flushing Meadows. And I've already recorded my own fancy for one of them, Andy Murray, to be ready for his big breakthrough as a Grand Slam winner. But after the first day there's another contender who needs to be taken very, very seriously.

We're looking at somebody who holds the record for the world's fastest serve at 155mph; who's career is on an upward curve; who has already won a US Open so knows what it takes; who has been to a Grand Slam final in the last few months and lost his serve only once, and that in the 77th game; who has the experience and maturity not to be daunted by facing the top names.

That's an awful lot of boxes to tick yet still be on offer at as long as [6.0] to reach the final and [19.0] to win the thing. So step forward Andy Roddick, who breezed through his first round match with Germany's Bjorn Phau 6-1 6-4 6-2 in barely an hour and a half and now has what should be an equally easy saunter against Tunisian Marc Gicquel to come tomorrow in round two.

There aren't many tennis players who get, for want of a better expression, a "second wind" to their career. The typical pattern is to hit the peak at the age of about 21, then either burn out and fade away or, if you are Roger Federer or Pete Sampras, stay at the top until you finally hang up your racquet. Andre Agassi has until now been the exception to the rule, winning three Grand Slams as an aggressive and showy youngster and then returning to the top with five more at the age of 29 and above.

Agassi did that because after going through his first burn-out he suddenly recognised how much he loved the sport itself. And he realised too that he would get out only what he put in, so went on a punishing fitness schedule to make sure he was still quick enough to duel with the young guns.

Roddick appears to have had the same sort of realisation. Since taking on Larry Stefanki as his new coach in December of last year he has made huge strides forward. For a start he's got his fitness work right, losing the best part of half a stone to make himself more mobile around the courts. That in turn has made him less susceptible to the niggling injuries which plagued him for the previous three or four seasons. And Stefanki, with the experience of working with the likes of John McEnroe, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Tim Henman, has also added some tactical nous to what used to be a more one-dimensional big-serving game.

"This time last year I felt I was playing catch-up not just from a tennis perspective but in terms of fitness and health," he said after his first round win. "I came to the US Open just hoping to win a few matches, but now I feel more confident in his ability."

And why shouldn't he? He's also been helped by a kind draw that gives him little serious opposition before he meets the unpredictable Novak Djokovic in the quarter-final. And if anybody is capable of stopping Roger Federer it's the man who almost stopped him on Centre Court in July.

Five things you might not know about Andy Roddick

1. Born in Nebraska in 1982, Mum was a schoolteacher who let all three of her sons learn tennis at the school courts

2. Like many top players Roddick moved to Florida at the age of 11 to be near a tennis academy. But Andy only went so his parents could give his older brother John the chance to be a pro!

3. He once appeared in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch - playing himself having been summoned by Sabrina to give her tennis lessons. A year later he won his only Grand Slam title and reckoned Sabrina had put her spell on the rest of the field before he beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final.

4. His wife Brooklyn Decker is a top swimwear model. They met because he saw her picture in a magazine and asked his agent to set up a date

5. He's paid by racquet makers Babolet to use their "Pure Drive Roddick GT Plus" model. But the one he actually plays with is an earlier and now discontinued Babolet model which is specially weighted for him but painted to look like the current one.

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