HE IS the top American, the only one inside the top 10.
It is a territory he has comfortably occupied for seven consecutive seasons.
He won three ATP titles last year from four finals, and only Roger Federer, Sir Roger, has gone as many consecutive years winning at least one title a season.
He always reaches at least the quarter-finals - 13 of 19 tournaments last year - so he is always thereabouts, always competitive. But when it comes to the slams, he is the vanishing man. He has not made a grand slam final since 2006 and not won one since 2003.
His star is fading. Andy Roddick, the A-Rod, might be the top-ranked American, but he is now a quiet American. He is the almost unsighted American. He has whispered through this tournament, doing what he must through an unconfronting draw primarily on the back courts, to yesterday find himself opposed Tommy Robredo the 21 seed, and his first notable challenge.
It was a testing first set, when Robredo's opportunistic, heavy-hitting groundstrokes were landing, but as Roddick worked and wore him down, his groundstrokes, so deliberate early, became speculative.
Roddick, quietly went about his business to win 7-5, 6-1, 6-3.
Beating the likes of Robredo, however, has not been Roddick's difficulty, for he is a player who has taken just a set from Roddick in the past 10 matches. As an entrenched top 10 player, he ordinarily triumphs over amigos such as the Spaniard, his problems have arisen against the musketeers ahead of him.
"I'm not playing for anybody else to say something or write something. I think those days are done. I'm just looking to play well. I just go out there and play well and make someone work," Roddick said.
His diminshed results have been reflected in a diminished appeal which means the former pin-up boy of tennis has only featured on Rod Laver arena once - in his first match.
He is realistic enough to understand the logic, and not petulant enough to feel slighted by it.
"I'm not one of the guys that have to make a priority in the schedule right now. I understand that. The other guys have deserved that spot so, I'm not - I certainly don't feel like I'm entitled to anything. I just have to go back to work wherever it is," Roddick said.
He sensed his relative slide in tennis's pecking order last year and sought to rediscover himself and not allow his fading star to disappear without a fight by hiring a new coach, Larry Stefanki. He of the parade of past pupils McEnroe, Rios, Kafelnikov, Henman and most recently Gonzalez.
Stefanki has worked him doggedly, and whether it was by design or effect, he has trimmed his frame down by about seven kilograms, but as evidenced yesterday it has not hurt the power in his serve - up in the 220kmh mark - and only aided his ground cover.
He feels troubled by his relative drop in pecking order, but not as jilted as he felt by friend Serena Williams confessing recently that she had defeated Roddick. He has dropped in estimations, but surely not this far?
"She forgets to mention that it was 1993 … we were 10, and I had to literally run around in the shower to get wet. I was [as skinny as a finger] and she was bench pressing dump trucks already at that time. I told her that yesterday, and she got a good laugh."
Earlier in the battle of the next generation, Argentine prodigy Juan Martin Del Portro defeated young Croatian rival Marin Cilic 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the quarter-finals for the first time at the Australian Open.
Del Potro has now equalled his best grand slam form as the career trajectory of the 20-year-old keeps rising.
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