NEW YORK (AFP) - Andy Roddick served notice he belongs among the elite in men's tennis, blasting the sport's number one player into submission in the US Open final to join a new breed of Grand Slam champions.
Roddick's 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 triumph over French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero brought the 21-year-old American his first Slam title and lifted him to second in the ATP rankings with a win streak that has reached 19 matches.
Together with Roger Federer, the Swiss winner of Wimbledon, tennis has seen a new set of stars surge to the top of the rankings, replacing the retired Pete Sampras and rivaling 33-year-old Andre Agassi, an eight-time Slam champion.
"It's certainly shaping up to be a really good group, with Roger winning and Juan Carlos winning, now him becoming number one," Roddick said. "We're all kind of close. I think it's going to make for a real exciting group.
"I'm just pumped to be part of it."
Eight different players have won the past eight Slam titles, including Agassi at the Australian Open and Aussie Lleyton Hewitt last year at Wimbledon.
When looking for the next Agassi-Sampras rivalry, tennis fans are going to have to look to a larger global group of talent that could also include Russian Marat Safin and Argentina's David Nalbandian.
"There are always special matches like Sampras or Agassi," Ferrero said. "Right now there are a lot of players we can play who are so good like Andy, Roger, Safin, Hewitt. There are a lot of young guys. There's not two special guys who are going to play all the finals like Agassi or Sampras."
Spain's Ferrero, who took the top ranking fom Agassi by beating the legend in the US Open semi-finals, expects Roddick will be among the rivals he meets often in Slams, although they had not played each other until Sunday's final.
"He's one of the guys that is playing good," Ferrero said. "I think he's going to be in the top 10, top five for sure. I don't know if he's going to be number one or win four Grand Slams."
Brad Gilbert, Roddick's coach, said the potential is there for Roddick to be among the multi-Slam winners. But he has plenty of improvement to get there.
"At 21, he has got to get way better," Gilbert said. "If he doesn't then he won't win a bunch. He can learn to do everything better. Hopefully in the next few years he will learn to serve and volley even better.
"In every sport, if you don't think you can get better you won't. And he needs to improve a lot. There's nothing he doesn't do that he can't do better."
Gilbert said he had taught patience to Roddick though it seems he already had it in him. He has also displayed a lot of heart. At the beginning of the year, he played an epic match in the Australian Open outlasting Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 4-6, 21-19. That fifth set is the longest ever played in the history of the sport. It lasted 2 hours 23 minutes. The whole match ended just one minute shy of 5 hours.
Roddick has made a believer of tennis legend Jimmy Connors, who won his last Slam title here 20 years ago and likes what he sees in Roddick.
"Three years of experience is huge at a young age," Connors said. "His abilities and his knowledge for playing big points, it seems to be to be a lot different. He's not as overanxious at times. He's able to stay in there, work the point a little bit more."
Roddick pushed to the limit in the semi-finals, saving a match point in a third-set tiebreaker and rallying to beat Argentina's David Nalbandian in five sets.
"If he's the competitor and has the heart I think he has, that's what you live for, to turn around a match like that and show what you have beyond tennis," Connors said.
"There are some occasions where tennis is secondary. It's what else is involved in you and what's inside you, what you can bring out that takes over and wins for you. In a situation like that, that's what it's all about."
-- September 8, 2003