Serena Williams' ex-coach details why he thinks Andy Roddick 'overachieved' in tennis

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• Serena Williams

Serena Williams' childhood coach Rick Macci says Andy Roddick "overachieved" in his opinion and also deserved more recognition from the American public for who he was as a player and what he was able to accomplish. In 2003 - just days after turning 21 - Roddick won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open.

In 2003 November, Roddick also reached the world No 1 spot for the first time in his career. At the time, the great Pete Sampras just retired and Andre Agassi was heading toward the end of his career. The American public then turned to Roddick, expecting him to be the next American to win multiple Slams.

In the next couple of years, Roddick made four more Grand Slam finals - three at Wimbledon and one at the US Open - but in each of those four Slam finals he ended up on the losing side to Roger Federer.

Macci on Roddick: He overachieved, deserved to be appreciated more

"People always looked at Andy like ‘Is he the next [Pete] Sampras or [Andre] Agassi?’ You know he was never gonna be that in my opinion.

But I think, he overachieved, and I tell him this. He’s just a great guy. With competition, everything changed around him. I think he overachieved, very few bad losses and people didn’t really appreciate him as much, and till we’ve never had any other American Grand Slam champion.

He was just a great competitor. Everybody’s competitive… but there was a different level. I mean he took out Federer, Nadal, Djokovic… he beat all those guys now and then and if it was a boxing match, they would probably win 18 to 20 in the tale of the tape.

But he was just as competitive, had a big serve and the forehand. So, one of my all-time favorites. He was a mosquito. He just would not let you alone and I love that in a player," Macci said of Roddick on the ATP Tennis Radio podcast, via Sportskeeda.