The Wade Boggs Time Machine is a recurring article that uses the time machine Wade built in 1983 to take a look back at a prominent sports figures past. Hop on, a ride into the past is always fun for all involved! (Children, Ronald Curry, and Grant Hill not allowed for fear of injury)

Today on the Wade Boggs Time Machine we are going to take a look back at Andy Roddick’s career on the ATP. First stop 1999…

1999: At the age of 17 Andy Roddick considers quitting tennis after a long losing streak on the Junior tour. KC, in the present a huge Roddick fan, is having none of it and approaches Roddick and whispers in his ear, “Don’t be such a bitch. If you stay in the game you will be #1 in the world, rich, and marry this girl” pointing at a picture of Roddick’s wife Brooklyn that he keeps in his pocket at all times for “personal” reasons. His coach at the time, Tarik Benhabiles, takes credit for keeping Roddick in the game after the mystery man disappears

1999-2000: After KC’s advice Roddick bursts onto the scene. Roddick would finish the 1999 season ranked the #6 Junior in the world and 2000 ranked the #1 Junior. He won 6 singles titles and the US Open and Austrailian Open Junior titles. In that year he would also record his first majors victory in the pro draw and would beat several ranked players including: # 41 Fernando Vicente, # 30 Fabrice Santoro, # 4 Pete Sampras (also the greatest tennis player of his time), and # 1 Gustavo Kuerten all at the age of 19.

2003: Because watching all his accomplishments would be extremely boring and Dobu has started complaining that he is going to miss out on an amazing party if we take much longer we skip forward to Roddick’s break through year, 2003. That year he won his first Masters Series titles in Canada and Cincinnati. Roddick won his first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open defeating world # 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final. The US Open title along with his recent success would make him the #1 player at the age of 21. Roddick was the first American to finish a year at # 1 since Andre Agassi in 1999. This would be the high point of his career.

2004-2008: KC convinces TM, Dobu, and RM to fastforward through the next four years because it was a bad few seasons for Roddick. (this time machine is pretty badass by the way) In 2004 Roddick would lose his number #1 ranking to Roger Federer, who would stay #1 for the next 4 years, after Federer won the Australian Open. After a solid 2004 season he would finish #2. It was all down hill from there. Over the next 2 seasons Roddick would go 1-15 when head to head with Federer, 0-3 in Grand Slam Finals, and lost to many future top 10’s before they were ranked: Djokivic, Nadal, and Murray. In the four years Roddick would only win 2 ATP Major titles and only make it to the semis 6 times and finals 3 times at a Grand Slam event, never winning. In 2005 he went through a few coaches and a run of injuries that caused him to miss time and play poorly. At the end of 2008 Roddick would finish a disappointing #8 in the world. There is one positive however, in 2007 after seeing her in a magazine Roddick would start dating his eventual wife Broklyn Decker.

2009: So, the final part of our journey on the Wade Boggs time machine … today. In 2009 Roddick is starting to rebound. Starting the year he was ranked #8 but heading into Wimbledon he was ranked #6 after a SF appearence at the Austrailian Open and a 4th round appearence in the French Open (his career best). And now Roddick is back to his first Grand Slam Final since the 2006 US Open to face the man he can’t seem to beat, Roger Federer.

I would travel forward and tell you who wins, but then that ruins all the fun. So check out the final on Sunday to see if Roddick can finally beat Roger Federer in a Grand Slam and win his first Grand Slam in almost 3 years.

- KC Roberts