Roddick reflects on career spent in vacuum of Big Four

AFP

International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Andy Roddick said on Saturday he was honored to have played in the era of the Big Four, but also acknowledged that they caused him no end of frustration during his career.

Speaking in Newport, Rhode Island, where he was inducted along with Belgian Kim Clijsters and Dutch Paralympic champion Monique Kalkman-van den Bosch, Roddick spoke about what it was like to compete against Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

“I can't believe the level of tennis that I got to see in my career,” said the American former world No. 1.

“The shots hit, the records that were broken, and the records that continue to be broken. Thanks to Murray, Novak, Roger and Rafa for playing the game at a higher level than it's ever been played."

Roddick won his sole grand slam title at the 2003 US Open, while he was a losing finalist four times — all against Federer, three times at Wimbledon and once at the US Open.

Perhaps the most memorable of those finals was the 2009 Wimbledon classic that Federer won 16-14 in the fifth set.

Clijsters was inducted after capturing four grand slam titles during her career, three of which she claimed after coming out of retirement in 2009 following the birth of her daughter.

"This is really special not just for me but for all of my family,” she said as her husband and three children looked on.

Kalkman-van den Bosch earned her place in the Hall of Fame by winning three Paralympic gold medals and four world championships in wheelchair tennis.

Before switching sports in 1986, she was a table tennis Paralympic champion.

Apart from the trio, tennis journalist and historian Steve Flink and the late Vic Braden, a groundbreaking instructor who died in 2014 at age 85, were also enshrined in the Hall of Fame.