"I thought he was very sexy when I saw him play" - Andy Roddick's wife Brooklyn Decker on American's 'foul-mouthed' renegade approach to tennis
Andy Roddick's wife Brooklyn Decker recently reflected on her initial impressions of watching the American play tennis, stating that she thought he looked "very sexy" with his "renegade" approach to the sport.
Speaking to GQ Sports, Decker recalled that she had come in thinking tennis was an "off-limits, rich person sport." However, watching Roddick break racquets and yell obscenities on the court was immediately "funny" to her, as it felt to her like he was shaking up the "rigid" establishment by doing so.
“Tennis to me felt like such an off-limits, rich person sport. And so to see him breaking racquets, foul-mouthed, this renegade approach he would take sometimes—I always found it really funny, cause it seemed to shake up the rigid world that tennis was. I thought he was very sexy when I saw him play,” Brooklyn Decker said.
Andy Roddick added, joking that his wife liked it when he "yelled" at the umpires.
“She used to like it when I yelled at umpires,” Roddick joked.
The couple met in 2007 and became engaged to each other the following year, with Roddick proposing to the Hollywood star in their hotel room at the Indian Wells Open. It was an act that saved their relationship, according to the former US Open champion, who confessed that he and Decker might not have gotten through with their relationship if not for that commitment.
"I went from, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna get in a serious relationship forever,’ and then we were engaged in, like, six months. And then we really got to know each other. If we hadn’t actually made that commitment, I don’t know that we get through that," Roddick said.
"When Andy Roddick retired, he became the person who I knew and fell in love with" - Brooklyn Decker
Brooklyn Decker also reflected on Andy Roddick's last few days on tour, sadly recalling how he had become so irritable that she had started worrying if he really was the man she had loved.
However, the moment he hung up his racquet, the former World No. 1 became his old self once again, leading Decker to understand that he had just been struggling with the end of his career and by extension, his identity.
"He was not as happy playing. He became significantly less patient with his injuries. He was irritable. And I naively thought, I married this man and now he’s changing. What’s going on here?” He was still young, but often he was acting like an old man. What happened to the guy who’d snapped off that sprig of holly? Where was that Andy?" Brooklyn Decker said.
“And when he retired, it was like a light switched on in him. And he became the person who I knew and fell in love with. And after some time I realized, Oh, this is a man who was suffering and really grappling with the end of his career. And the end of that identity,” she added.
Having started his career on the ATP Tour in 2000, Andy Roddick played his final singles competitive match in 2012, reaching the fourth round of the US Open before falling to Juan Martin del Potro.