Hey Hey! It's Andy Roddick!

Andy's Back! Thank the Lord. It took him long enough. After faltering for pretty much an entire year, whether it be to poor play or injury, Andy Roddick is finally back and in good form. He won his first tournament of the year in Cincinnati and, consequently, won the U.S. Open series. His game is back and better than ever!! He has hired Jimmy Connors as his co-coach. (His brother, John, is his primary coach, and I don't see them "parting ways" anytime soon!) Jimmy has been awesome for Andy. Who better to help Andy with his tennis shortcomings than a legend known for his strategic and dominating play?

Along with the awesome tennis play, Andy has brought back the emotion - or should I say the positive emotion. The fist pump and subsequent yell are back! I really think Andy has a terrific shot at the finals and even the championship. I've never seen his game at such an amazing level. I would even venture to say that it is equal, if not better than his play in 2003 when he won his first grandslam. Andy came into the Open as the 9 seed and ranked 10 in the world. (Technically, he is 9 in the world, but the official rankings aren't released until after a grandslam.)

Andy just beat Benjamin Becker from Germany (no - there is no relation to Boris!). As my friend, Stacy, and her boyfriend, Dave, pointed out, the match looked like Stifler vs. the 40-Year-Old Virgin!! lol I definitely could see it, and I'm glad Stifler won!! Becker ended the storied career of Andre Agassi two days ago after a hard fought bout. Andre did Benjamin and, in turn, Andy a favor by taking out 8 seed Marcos Baghdatis. Baghdatis had beat Andy in Australia, and that is where Andy's year really started to crumble. Andre helped American tennis with his win over Marcos. Who knows if Andy would be where he is right now in the tournament if Marcos was still around. I'd like to think that Andy would still be playing, but no one will ever really know. Tomorrow he plays Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals. As some of you may remember Lleyton dated Kim "the Dog Faced girl" Clijsters for years. They were even engaged at one point. They broke up sometime at the beginning of last year or the end of the year before that. A little after they broke up, Lleyton started dating some Australian model, got her pregnant and married her. Poor Kim! I'm not a Hewitt fan anymore!!

Andy became the first American man to reach a quarterfinal of a grandslam this year. That's not saying much for American tennis, but I think it's on the rise. James Blake is ranked 5th, so hopefully he can play well and make it to the end. Who wouldn't want an all-American final at the U.S. Open?