Big guns impressed by calibre of Roddick

John McEnroe modestly describes Roddick as "America's brightest hope since myself", but even that makes Roddick sound like a backwoods kid who has done nothing of note in the senior ranks.

Wise up. He may have started the year ranked 160th, but back-to-back ATP clay court titles this spring catapulted Roddick to 28th in the Champions' Race.

His epic victory over former champion Michael Chang at Roland Garros two weeks ago thrilled all who saw it, and only a painful hamstring injury forced his submission to Lleyton Hewitt at set-all in the third round.

The gigantic 130mph serve which brought him successive straight set victories over Marcelo Rios and Pete Sampras in March will make him the original dangerous floater in the Wimbledon draw, and he is already seeded 11th at Queen's this week.

He has even acquired a nickname - A-Rod, mystifying to us Brits but a play on words to Americans into baseball. In any case, think JLo (Jennifer Lopez). Think potential superstar with a teen scream factor for good measure. Yet for a very young man who has been hearing how great he is for a long time now, he is agreeably unimpressed with himself.

"I was brought up in Omaha, Nebraska, small-time USA, so I'm pretty laid back,'' says Roddick, whose family moved to Florida eight years ago. "When I got back from Australia last year after I won the Boys' title at the Open, my friends asked me how I did. I told them and they said: 'Great. What do you want to do this weekend?'

"Sure, I read the papers and I look at the major predictions which others are forecasting for me, but I know it's just because I'm flavour of the month and that the same stuff has been written about other players in the past. What's important is that I stay focused on improving my standards and keep working on my weaknesses.

"Andre Agassi has been great to me in that respect. He's instilled a sense of professionalism to my approach and shown me how to play certain points, encouraging me to realise that I don't have to fire down a 140mph serve all the time. These are things you don't pick up overnight. You have to be on the tour and listen to the guys and use their advice gradually, progressively, because I don't expect any favours. Quite the opposite.''

Nobody seems to think Roddick will have too much trouble getting by.

"Andy is our best hope for a while,'' says Agassi. "I've worked with him a lot and he has great presence on court. But he's also a good guy, a quality person who is considerate of people around him. I like the way he handles himself.''

A lot of people do. Chris Evert describes the Roddick family as "delightful" - not a word you hear too often about your average tennis parents. As for Roddick's game, Sampras best sums up the widespread view.

"There is no doubt he is going to get better and better,'' he says. "The way he crunches that first ball is awesome and he is the beginning of a new American breed. He possesses a big cannon, and he has the all-round game to become a great player.''

And, of course, his powerhouse game should be devastating on grass. Queen's will be Roddick's first competitive experience of the surface since junior Wimbledon two years ago

"I'm looking forward to grass,'' he grins. "It's a chance to show what I can do. But I don't think about the surface too much. I just like competing, although I'm pretty fiery out there. I want it, and I am emotional.

"As a 10-year-old I used to get up to watch Breakfast At Wimbledon. I'll never forget the 1992 final when Andre played Goran Ivanisevic. To see Andre win when people doubted he could was amazing. Wimbledon is just one of those majestic places.''

You begin to see what Agassi means about the way Roddick handles himself. But he is not 18 going on 40. He is still enough of a kid that his bathroom at the family's Florida home is wallpapered in the red-and-white pennants of his beloved University of Nebraska gridiron team. He likes pizza, South Park and Eminem. McEnroe is right. Roddick is "a big kid with a big game''.

"I know since I beat Pete I've been tipped to spring up the rankings to the summit and make a serious impression in the Slams," said Roddick. "People have been saying I'm the one for a while now, so I'm used to it and I embrace it. You can't have fear or you're not going to do anything. But I've said all along I'm not going to replace Pete or Andre. I have no fixed goals and won't be hoodwinked into thinking I am anywhere near my peak. Once you start to believe you're something special, that's when things stop happening for you."