The Seed That Agassi Planted In Roddick’s Mind

When Andy Roddick was 17 years old, he was on the same flight as fellow American Andre Agassi. The teenager hadn’t yet earned an ATP Ranking, but he wanted to pick the brain of his hero, so he asked Agassi if he had any regrets.

The former World No. 1 and 60-time tour-level champion told Roddick that he wished he had started his foundation earlier. The next year, 2000, he founded the Andy Roddick Foundation to help support underprivileged children.

“The conversation with Andre planted the seed in my head. In tennis, I don’t know that we get enough credit for the history and the people who have come and the big changes they have made, whether it’s Arthur Ashe or Billie Jean King with equality, Roger or Andre, tennis players are on the Mount Rushmore of philanthropy and I think that trickles down,” Roddick told ATPTour.com. “If you see your heroes doing something, it makes it a lot easier to lean in. So they certainly deserve the lion’s share of the credit for what any of us have done.”

“One of the biggest regrets in my career was not starting the Andre Agassi Foundation For Education sooner. So it’s great to see that Andy not only started his foundation at a young age, but he has continued to have an impact on youth for many years since,” Agassi told ATPTour.com. “Tennis gave me a great platform, and I’m blessed to be able to make a difference in children’s lives. If others in the sport were inspired to jump into philanthropy because of my work, that makes it even more special.”

To this day, the Andy Roddick Foundations helps provide high quality out-of-school learning and enrichment for youth and families where there may not otherwise be such opportunities. The Foundation has raised more than $20 million for children’s charities since its inception.

Last September, despite suffering a disappointing fourth-round loss at the US Open, Roger Federer traveled to Austin, Texas, to star at a conversation-based event raising money for the Andy Roddick Foundation.

“Roger was extremely gracious when he came to Austin. As soon as he landed, I picked him up from the airport and his questions weren’t, ‘What time can I be out of here? What’s going to be the path of least resistance for the next three or four hours?” Roddick recalled. “They were, ‘How can I make the most impact while I’m on the ground here? Who do we need to talk to? What are the important messages we need to get out about the foundation?’ So his questions about how he could be best used for the day were very impressive and appreciated and he was so gracious throughout the afternoon. We were lucky to have him and it was nice seeing my former life and current life live in unity for a day.”

It’s been more than six-and-a-half years since Roddick retired at the 2012 US Open. But he is still working hard — just not on the tennis court. Instead, his efforts are dedicated towards helping kids and their families.

“I think tennis is a bit more of a self-serving endeavour. Each day it’s a little bit more selfish. You have your coaches, your trainers, your team around you. You want to create your schedule so it’s almost like you’re a planet and you have this little orbit going on around you at all times,” Roddick said. “The foundation work is completely the opposite. You’re looking a little bit more outwards than inwards. But it does take a certain drive, it does take planning, it does take goal-setting, so there are some similarities. But the day-to-day I think are very different.”

Roddick’s life has also fundamentally changes since his days competing on the ATP Tour. Roddick’s wife, Brooklyn Decker, has since given birth to two children. So while their first child, Hank, was born 15 years after the Foundation was created, the work it does has resonated even more since.

“When a parent doesn’t have to leave at 2 o’clock and can actually work those last three hours of the day and you multiply that by five days a week and by weeks in a year, it makes a huge difference financially for a family, which changes the dynamic of a kid’s life,” Roddick said. “That certainly wasn’t the motivation when we started and like I said it is an unintended consequence, but it’s also something I really championed when talking to out-of-school time programs and the difference it could make.”

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