Andy Roddick reminisces on the time when 'Mattress Mack' gifted him a car after winning a clay court title at the age of 19

Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick reminisced on the time when he got a car as a gift from businessman and tennis enthusiast James Franklin McIngvale, popularly known as "Mattress Mack", after winning a clay court title in America.

America's only clay court event is organized and hosted by Houston's River Oaks Country Club.

Speaking on the Tennis Channel, Andy Roddick said that when he won the clay court event at 19. Mack's wife Linda promised him a new car if he triumphed in the event and stayed true to her word too.

"I was playing on the clay courts in 2002 and I wasn't old enough to rent a car and I wanted to borrow one of their cars. I went up to his wife, Linda, and she said if I win, I can drive it home. Three days later, a delivery truck delivered the car she had mentioned earlier that week. I was nineteen years old and I had a new car," Roddick said.

Andy Roddick added that the tennis community was lucky to have a personality like "Mattress Mack" being involved in the game and promoting it:

"We were lucky to have MM involved in tennis for what seemed like a too short amount of time. It felt like, we were playing every two weeks in the USA. He was full of energy, always so committed to the community."

Big 4 "completely revolutionized the game", says Andy Roddick

A file photo of Roger Federer and Andy Roddick at the 2021 Laver Cup. (PC: Getty Images)

Andy Roddick was the last player to achieve the numero uno status in the year-end rankings before the big four era of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray commenced.

The 2022 season marked the end of the domination of the big four era in tennis when Carlos Alcaraz finished the season as the top-ranked player in the world.

On the Tennis Channel, Andy Roddick hailed Alcaraz and said that the youngster possesses immense talent:

"It took an all-world talent like Carlos Alcaraz who is already a complete player at 19 years old now (to put an end to the domination of the big four). What a talent Alcaraz is."

The former World No. 1 added that the big four completely revolutionized the sport and that their consistency is hard to match:

"It just goes to show those guys are selfish, very very selfish, keeping titles from us mortals. I don't know if we are ever going to see consistency like we've seen from the big four over the last 20 years. They completely revolutionized the game, it's just absurd."

The 2022 season was Carlos Alcaraz's best ever. He won his first Grand Slam at the US Open and also won titles in Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona, Madrid and Miami.