{"id":493773,"date":"2026-02-27T14:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/493773\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T14:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:30:08","slug":"andy-roddick-and-a-new-brand-of-tennis-pundit-i-wont-be-understudied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/493773\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Roddick and a new brand of tennis pundit: \u2018I won\u2019t be understudied\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennis has never been so fragmented, but occasionally something happens which prompts virtually no dissent.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s decision to add Andy Roddick to their team for Wimbledon and the U.S. Open<\/a> on a multi-year deal was one such moment. When it was announced on Monday, fellow former world No. 1 Andy Murray captured the mood. \u201cThis is a great deal for tennis,\u201d he posted on X. \u201cGreat knowledge of the game, well researched, speaks well, loves tennis, good fun, enjoys a debate and my god tennis needs way more of that on its broadcasts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since retiring in 2012 aged 30, Roddick has established himself as one of the sharpest minds in the sport. He was initially largely invisible, save for a brief stint with the BBC, Britain\u2019s state broadcaster, for their Wimbledon coverage in 2015. Roddick earned rave reviews but no longer wanted to base his life around tennis and its relentless travel and largely faded from public view.<\/p>\n

That was until he launched his own podcast, Served with Andy Roddick, in 2024. The show is produced by Served Media, a company the 2003 U.S. Open champion co-founded with sports television producer Michael Hayden, and now has nearly 200,000 subscribers on YouTube.<\/p>\n

In a sport that can be cosy and traditional, Roddick offers something different. He has an uncompromising approach on Served, while breaking down complex or technical topics in engaging, accessible ways. At 43 he\u2019s also a lot younger than many of the dominant tennis voices in the media, and is able to combine his expertise and knowledge of playing and beating so many of the game\u2019s best with an everyman appeal.<\/p>\n

As Hayden, who also appears on Served, put it to The Athletic this week: \u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re sitting at the bar having a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But will Roddick still be the straight-talking pundit not afraid to shoot from the hip when working for a more traditional broadcaster?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, straight-talking is different from shooting from the hip,\u201d he said in a phone interview with The Athletic on Wednesday. \u201cShooting from the hip implies that you haven\u2019t thought about what you\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t go and drop 16 F-bombs on ESPN. But I don\u2019t know that ESPN made the approach for me not to do it the way that I\u2019ve been doing it. That would seem like a waste of resources to me. I\u2019m not going to change much \u2014 if I believe something, then I\u2019m happy to commit to that opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayden\u2019s view? \u201cYeah, I mean he definitely won\u2019t be wearing a tie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The straight-talking, shooting-from-the-hip distinction is key. Murray, a similarly keen tennis mind, has said he\u2019s wary of commentating because he didn\u2019t like it when former players made comments on his game without sufficient knowledge.<\/p>\n

Part of Roddick\u2019s appeal is that his research, closeness to a number of current players and first-hand experience allows him to give listeners and viewers important context about the sport\u2019s unique dynamics and how challenging it is. So he\u2019s often an ally rather than an antagonist when it comes to current players.<\/p>\n

An impassioned defence of world No. 4 Alexander Zverev in November is a case in point. \u201cIt p***** me off,\u201d Roddick said of the frequent criticism Zverev receives. \u201cI don\u2019t ever ever want to get to the place where anyone who\u2019s not them (Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz) is treated like a piece of s***. That\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

After years of staying much the same, the tennis broadcast landscape appears to be slowly changing. Roddick is a refreshing new voice, while Andre Agassi, absent from tennis for so long after retiring in 2006, has started doing more regular television analysis work and was a big success for the BBC at Wimbledon last year.<\/p>\n

One moment that summed up the different energy and insights he brought came in the men\u2019s semifinal between Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz. \u201cPeople watching are watching for tennis, not for this,\u201d Agassi said to the main commentator Andrew Castle, after frequently being interrupted trying to analyze the match so that Castle, a 62-year-old former British No. 1, could identify another celebrity in the crowd.<\/p>\n

A day after the Roddick ESPN announcement meanwhile, Tennis Channel confirmed a three-year deal with Chris Eubanks, who only stopped playing tennis at the end of last year, aged 29. \u201cEubanks is the most natural broadcaster I\u2019ve seen in a long time,\u201d Roddick said, while also citing four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier as one of his favourite analysts.<\/p>\n

Eubanks was part of the revamped ESPN team at the Australian Open last month, which also included CoCo Vandeweghe, a 34-year-old who retired in 2023. Longtime analysts Pam Shriver, Brad Gilbert and Darren Cahill were not part of the lineup. Meanwhile Danielle Collins, who at 32 is taking a break from the sport, covered the event for the Tennis Channel. Andrea Petkovic, the 38-year-old former world No 9 was also part of the Tennis Channel team, and over the last few years has earned pretty much universal acclaim for her incisive and entertaining analysis.<\/p>\n

Veterans like Shriver and Mary Carillo remain extremely well-respected but some, like John McEnroe, have come in for criticism<\/a> for a perceived lack of originality and insight.<\/p>\n

The BBC, meanwhile, was told by Wimbledon to freshen up its coverage for this year\u2019s event, according to a report last month in the Times of London<\/a>. The broadcaster did not wish to comment on the story (nor did the All England Club), but a BBC spokesperson said on Thursday via email that exciting plans were in place for this year\u2019s coverage of the event.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n John McEnroe\u2019s punditry style is not to everyone\u2019s taste. (Adrian Dennis \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As for ESPN, Roddick is full of respect for their tennis coverage over the last two decades or so: \u201cI would challenge you to find any coverage of any sport that has had that good of a run.\u201d<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t know yet how his workload will be divided between the studio and commentary booth, but he is determined to get himself up to speed as quickly as possible with the latter. Roddick has only commentated on three matches in his life \u2014 all at Wimbledon in 2015 \u2014 but pledged to \u201cempty the canister of advice with people that I have access to. I won\u2019t be understudied going in.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he would be conscious of the difference between the brevity needed for 20 seconds between a point during commentary or a seven-minute match preview compared to a freewheeling podcast that can last a couple of hours. The fundamental principle of what he tries to do, however, would remain the same. \u201cIt\u2019s still tennis and it\u2019s about not just the what, but explaining the why. I think that\u2019s probably the lane that they hired me for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Roddick nor ESPN wanted to comment on the finances of the deal, but he said it was a straightforward one to agree. The timing felt right. Initially focusing on other pursuits in retirement, including a highly lucrative commercial real estate company, Roddick is now sufficiently reengaged in the sport through Served to feel confident that what he has to say about it is worth listening to. \u201cI didn\u2019t watch enough before to believe my own musings,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s changed in the last five or six years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed too to the fact that his kids are older now \u2014 Roddick\u2019s son Hank is 10, his daughter Stevie eight \u2014 and there\u2019s a little more scope to travel. Though he still has too much going on at home to commit to the kind of peripatetic lifestyle that defines many coaches and analysts in retirement. And indeed himself for pretty much his first 30 years.<\/p>\n

Roddick lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and leads a full life with his wife, the actor Brooklyn Decker, and their kids. When we spoke he was about to set off on a three-hour drive to Athens, Georgia to see the Runarounds, the band made famous by the show of the same name, which Decker was in.<\/p>\n

Much of Roddick\u2019s time is spent recording Served to an increasingly big and global audience \u2014 now in a purpose-built studio five minutes from where he lives, having moved from a corner of his home gym after last year\u2019s U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

Roddick\u2019s ability to pull A-list guests like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal adds to the show\u2019s appeal, but the main draw is the intimacy listeners feel with the host, despite him being a Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1.<\/p>\n

The New York Times reported in September 2025<\/a> that \u201cServed\u201d had surpassed $2million in revenue for the year up until that point, doubling its previous year. That figure rose by the end of 2025, and according to Hayden they have already booked more revenue than they generated in all of last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Roddick\u2019s Served podcast has been a hit. (Eakin Howard \/ Getty Images for Laver Cup)<\/p>\n

The success of Served shows both what former players can achieve on their own, but also its limitations. \u201cWe started our show with I think $7,000 worth of Amazon equipment and you don\u2019t need permission to go on YouTube or Apple or Spotify, but we will never be able to afford the rights to the biggest tournaments,\u201d Roddick said. \u201cSo you can have an impact, you can have an audience. But it is going to be siloed and non-live.\u201d<\/p>\n

The greater amount of data and graphics available to Roddick at ESPN excites him, and Hayden sees it as win-win for Served, whose output won\u2019t be affected by the deal (\u201cmy single biggest non-negotiable\u201d Roddick said on the show this week). At the U.S. Open last year, they hosted a live recording of the show on site, and there is the scope for similar tie-ups this year, while having Roddick onsite at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open will only add to his visibility and first-hand knowledge of how the sport looks in 2026.<\/p>\n

Hayden references figures in other sports like the now Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick, whose podcast The Old Man and the Three only grew in popularity alongside his work with ESPN.<\/p>\n

ESPN may well benefit from Served viewers following Roddick to their channel. This could be helpful given the backlash to its decision to only stream the matches on the three major Australian Open courts \u2014 Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena, and John Cain Arena \u2014 to those willing to pay an extra $30 a month for ESPN Unlimited.<\/p>\n

The network said it makes decisions about which events are shown on ESPN Unlimited on a sport-by-sport and event-by-event basis, and told The Athletic that plans for Wimbledon and the U.S. Open will be announced closer to the events.<\/p>\n

But Roddick\u2019s presence there will undoubtedly freshen things up. The man who is never short of an opinion has become an unlikely tennis unifier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennis has never been so fragmented, but occasionally something happens which prompts virtually no dissent. ESPN\u2019s decision to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,1794,428],"class_list":["post-493773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}