Fascinating Facts

* Roddick spends about 25 minutes a day on the Internet, using his Panasonic computer or Toshiba laptop, and he regularly updates his own website, andyroddick.com.

* Roddick was an excellent (3.6 grade average) student at Boca Raton (Florida) Prep School before turning pro. He told Daily Telegraph (UK) writer Sue Mott, "I'm a little bit of a goofball. I was the class clown at high school."

* Roddick confided that the most embarrassing day he ever had was when, at age 12, he got into a dispute with an annoying tournament opponent, and his mother pulled him off the court, and he defaulted the match.

* Roddick was tabbed as one of the World's 20 Sexiest Athletes by US Weekly Magazine and ESPN.

* The weirdest thing that Andy Roddick says he ever signed his autograph to is a bra.

* Since Roddick wears his baseball cap backward, Reebok designed a style with the company logo in the rear.

* When asked what he wishes he could stop, Roddick replied, "Biting my nails."

* Roddick's favourite book is Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck "because I liked the contrast of characters and how Steinbeck made them all work together."

* Between age 15 and 16, Roddick grew 8 inches. So that his muscles and tendons could catch up with his bone growth, he had to wear orthotics and undergo a special stretching programme two hours a day.

* Roddick lists four-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong as his most inspirational role model.