Andy Roddick Returns To Defend His Title At The Morgan Keegan Championships February 12-21, 2010
Andy Roddick, the world's No. 6 tennis player and the top-ranked American, is returning to defend his title at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships.
Tournament officials announced that Roddick will be back in an attempt to win a third RMKC title. The 2002 champion won in 2009 with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic at The Racquet Club of Memphis.
Roddick, a perennial Memphis participant, will be joined in the field by the Nos. 2 and 3 Americans, Sam Querrey and James Blake. Former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, who played Memphis for the first time in 2009, also will be back, and the top-ranked doubles team of Mike and Bob Bryan will return to Memphis after a three-year absence.
"It's a hard field to beat,'' said tournament director Peter Lebedevs. "The best three U.S. players, plus Hewitt, plus the Bryans."
Roddick, who lost an epic five-set Wimbledon final this summer to Roger Federer, was forced to retire from an opening-round match in the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 tournament earlier this week with a knee injury. But a subsequent MRI revealed Roddick had a mild sprain of his medial collateral ligament. He should be back on the court in three weeks.
Roddick is expected to finish the season ranked in the world's top 10 for the eighth straight year.
As for Querrey, he is ranked 25th and coming off a summer in which he reached three consecutive finals and won his second career title. Blake, a former top 10, has slipped to No. 26, but reached two finals earlier this year, including the Wimbledon warmup tournament in Queens.
Hewitt and Roddick played a hard-fought semifinal in the 2009 RMKC.
Coming back from injury, Hewitt has boosted his world ranking to No. 23 after it fell to triple digits earlier this year.
The 2010 RMKC will be Feb. 12-21 at The Racquet Club of Memphis, conveniently located in the heart of the city at 5111 Sanderlin Rd, just north of Poplar between Mendenhall and White Station. For information and tickets call 901-765-4401 or visit www.memphistennis.com.
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