Nearly a week after he announced his retirement, Andy Roddick finished off his career at the U.S. Open on Wednesday, falling to Juan Martin del Potro 6-7 (1), 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-4.
Roddick had won two matches since he made the announcement and was previously 8-0 in his career in the fourth round.
Following the match, del Potro was nothing but classy and respectful, allowing Roddick to have his moment with the fans. After an embrace at the net with Roddick, del Potro said to the crowd: "Enjoy his last moment."
Roddick was understandably emotional after the match, tearing up as he addressed the stadium.
"For the first time in my career, I'm not sure what to say. Since I was a kid, I've been coming to this tournament and I felt lucky to be sitting where you are sitting," said Roddick according to the Associated Press. "I loved every minute of it. It's been a road. A lot of ups; a lot of downs; a lot of great moments. I know I certainly haven't made it easy for you at times. I love you guys with all my heart."
The match took two days to finish after the first set was interrupted by a rain delay. Roddick had taken control early in the match, only giving up one point in the first three service games. He played aggressively at the net, wining six of seven points.
Roddick played a fantastic drop shot to force a double break point and went up 4-2. He attacked del Potro throughout the first set with body serves and powerful forehands.
Del Potro seemed sluggish at the start, but battled back after Roddick took a 5-2 first set lead. The American was two points from winning the set when del Potro became bothered by water on court and grabbed a towel to dry off the baseline.
The move seemed to settle the Argentine down, as he battled back to tie the set at 5-5. At 30-30 the two played a 26-shot rally that Roddick won on a cross court forehand to go up 40-30.
Roddick held serve and del Potro forced a tiebreak before the rain began to fall again. Roddick was up 1-0 when the umpire took the players off the court. After picking up on Wednesday, Roddick seemed to have the advantage, taking the tiebreaker 7-1.
After losing the second set in another tiebreaker, Roddick seemed flustered in the third set, falling 6-2. Both players were drenched in sweat throughout the match but gutted out some great shots as the afternoon wore on.
Early in the fourth set Roddick had a break point on del Potro but couldn't convert, hitting a forehand long. He faced one match point but was able to fight it off using his serve and held to cut it to 5-4.
The last point of the match came off Roddick's racket and went wide to give del Potro a place in the quarterfinals.
Afterwards Roddick had a hard time looking at his family box, as his mother and his wife Brooklyn Decker started to shed tears.
The 30-yard-old Roddick won the 2003 U.S. Open and made four Grand Slam finals in his career, falling to Roger Federer each time. He was the premiere American tennis player for a decade and was remarkably consistent, winning a title in 12 straight years.
He had a 40-12 career record at the U.S. Open and won 32 titles overall. Roddick also was ranked the No. 1 player in the world for 13 weeks.
Since Roddick won that U.S. Open in 2003, del Potro is the only player not named Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic to win a Grand Slam.
Del Potro will next face defending champion Novak Djokovic, who advanced against No. 18 Stanislas Wawrinka, after he dropped out of the match while trailing 6-4, 6-1, 3-1, due to illness.
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