Roddick has finally found a coach for his 2009 season. Larry Stefanki was with Fernando Gonzalez for the past 3 years but I suppose even he had to give up after Gonzo started going south. Now, he will get a chance to work with Roddick and help him win another slam.

Will Roddick win another slam? Will he live up to the lofty expectations folks had for him a few years ago? You decide!

Andy Roddick’s journey to qualify for the year-ending championships took a hit today when he was bettered in two tie-breaks by Soderling (7-6, 7-6). Andy won two tie-breaks in his previous match against Robby Ginepri, but did not get lucky this time as Soderling used his serve to dominate his service games. Soderling had 4 break points on Roddick’s serve but didn’t break. Roddick had one and when 0 for one.

Roddick now has to rely on his result in Paris Masters to make it to Shanghai. But at least he is in a better position than Blake or Gilles Simon. Let’s see if these guys can catch up. I am personally hoping for Gilles Simon to make it so we can see another Simon Nadal match there, but we shall see.

Madrid Masters continued yesterday, and Federer got out of a potentially tricky match with Stepanek unscathed by winning the 2nd set tie-break just when Radek was finding his feet. Federer vs. Tsonga is the match tennis fans wanted to see, and that is going to happen now.

Roddick had no trouble with Robredo as he utterly dominated the spaniard. Djokovic almost lost it to Hanescu though. Hanescu played the match of his life and had Novak on the ropes for about 2 sets before failing to clinch it in the 2nd set tie-break and having to retire in the 3rd set.

Next up is Gasquet vs. Nadal, Murray vs. Cilic, and Del Potro vs. Nalbandian.

Juan Martin Del Potro’s got to be the hottest player on the planet these days, He won again today by beating Gasquet who was playing well himself. The final score was 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. But perhaps the surprise of the day was Berdych who finally won a big match to reach another final. Berdych has had a tough year and it looked as though his drought would continue when Roddick served for the match at 5-3, but Berdych broke and won the third set tie-breaker to stun Roddick and set up a match against Del Potro.

I would still take Juan Martin over Thomas tomorrow. Berdych is a very good player but I don’t think he can cause Del Potro much trouble if Juan plays like he has. It could go to three sets but Del Potro will win his 5th title in this past couple of months.

Tsonga did what he should have done at the Australian Open final, beat Djokovic. This time Tsonga did not let an early lead slip by and won it 7-6, 6-4. Sure the Thailand Open is a great win for Tsonga but I know he’ll be kicking himself for not using the same strategy against Djokovic (though it needs to be said that Novak had more confidence back then).

Roddick survived another tie-break loss this week to win the Beijing open. After losing a tie-break to Ferrero and Phau, I personally thought Roddick would reverse the streak, but he was solid enough to win two sets after losing yet another tie-break set, this time to Sela. Let’s see if Roddick can back up this result with a win over a top player

Andy Roddick aced his first test at the U.S. Open by beating Fabrice Santoro 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in straight sets to set up a mouth watering match with Ernest Gulbis in the 2nd round. Santoro was short of match practice after taking 6 weeks off, and it showed as he won only a handful of points on Roddick’s service and was broken early in the first and 2nd set to hand Roddick an easy win. After the match, Santoro had some words for Roddick as he thought Roddick had tried to attack him with a serve. Either way, Gulbis will be much tougher test for Roddick. That’s a given.

So much for Roddick Federer rematch at Toronto. First Roger Federer lost to Gilles Simons in a shocking fashion. Then Roddick was completely outplayed today by a Cilic, who, had he not been nervous, should’ve won the match in straight sets. But a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Roddick is all that matters.

Djokovic also won with not mush fuss over Soderling. It seems Djokovic and Nadal will have to battle it out in the semis for the title. Nadal needs to win this tournament to have a chance to take over the No. 1 ranking in the following week. In the meantime, Federer and Roddick will hope to have a better week next week.

So Andy Roddick has had a breakthrough year this year. He has beaten Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic so far, and dominated his Davis cup matches. But does he truly want to be No. 1 again? If so, how is it that he is skipping important clay court tournaments, and not giving clay a good try. Roddick has a big serve, but clay exposes how limited he really is tennis wise. Can he win a couple of matches on clay? You bet he can. Can he win the French? Of course not. But he doesn’t need to. Anything is better than a first round exit at this point. But he won’t do any better if he doesn’t try.

Nadal was on hot form today against an ill Berdych as he beat him in straight sets to reach to his first final of 2008. But more surprisingly Davydenko utterly outplayed Andy Roddick to win 7-6, 6-2, breaking Roddick 3 times to reach the final and record his first win against Roddick. Poor Roddick should be fuming right now as he had just beaten his nemesis in the last round in Roger Federere just to fall to someone he had never lost to.

Roddick finally beat his nemesis Federer by beating him in 3 sets 7-6, 4-6, 6-3. Those love break games that Federer drops every now and then cost him the match in the third set. Roddick will now face Davydenko.