Roddick won his first title of 2009 and the 27th of his career, beating Czech Radek Stepanek 7-5, 7-5 in the finals of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships.
Only Roger Federer (57) and Rafael Nadal (32) have won more titles among active players. Roddick confirmed Friday that he wouldn’t defend his title at Dubai. He said he wasn’t happy about the denial of a visa to Israeli player Shahar Peer by the United Arab Emirates for the women’s event this week.
But Roddick read a report that a hernia was his reason for withdrawing.
“There’s no other reason. Obviously, I don’t have a hernia. I probably wouldn’t have played too well today. I would ask you guys to check but that might be inappropriate. I’m 100 percent healthy,” Roddick said.
Now Roddick plans to work on his conditioning with his week off and may arrive in Birmingham, Ala., a little early for Davis Cup first-round play with Switzerland.
“I love the tournament in Dubai. The actual event that’s put on, they do a great job with this. I know a lot of this was out of their hands, but it is what it is. You have a week off as opposed to traveling there,” Roddick said.
Being healthy is what Roddick worked so hard for during the offseason with new coach Larry Stefanki. He lost 15 pounds.
On Sunday, Roddick got a bit of revenge for losing to Stepanek in the semifinals in San Jose last week and improved to 5-1 all-time against the man trying to become the first Czech to win in Memphis since Ivan Lendl in 1991. He called it satisfying to win a tight match with lots of long rallies. Roddick won the key points by breaking Stepanek in the 12th game of each set.
“Obviously, he’s been playing his best tennis of his career probably this year and especially the past couple weeks. I knew what it was going to take, and I was able to get there,” Roddick said.
Roddick extended his streak of years with at least one title to nine, the longest current streak on tour, though Federer could match him with a victory this year.
“We have a long year ahead of us,” Roddick said. “We always do, but this is the best start I’ve had in a long time. Possibly ever, actually, if you just look at the first two months of the year.”
The world’s sixth-ranked player took home the $300,000 winner’s check and 500 ranking points for the ATP World Tour. He improved to 17-3 in match play this year. Of his 27 titles, 19 have come in North America. This is Roddick’s second at Memphis.
The American, with his fiancee, model Brooklyn Decker, cheering him on at courtside, was coming into the final off the longest match of the tournament. He needed two hours, 11 minutes to beat Lleyton Hewitt compared to the 57 minutes Stepanek breezed past qualifier Dudi Sela.
Stepanek came in enjoying the best start to a year in his career with two titles already to his credit and trying to win for the second straight week. He had won nine consecutive matches but started slowly.
Roddick broke him in the second game to go up 2-0. Stepanek trailed 3-1 when he broke Roddick and then held serve to even the first set at 3-3.
“I had no doubts I wouldn’t break him back,” Stepanek said. “I had a lot of chances today to break him and didn’t convert them. That was the biggest difference between the two of us.”
They appeared headed toward a tiebreaker when Stepanek trailed 30-40 and hit a forehand long to give Roddick the first set.
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