Andy Roddick has hailed the United States' Davis Cup victory against Russia as one of the greatest moments of his career.
World number six places Davis Cup triumph on a par with 2003 US Open win
Andy Roddick has hailed the United States' Davis Cup triumph against Russia in Portland as one of the greatest moments of his tennis career.
The 2003 US Open champion was speaking after watching team-mates Bob and Mike Bryan beat Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko in Saturday's doubles rubber, with that result sealing an unassailable 3-0 against the defending champions.
It also means a 32nd Davis Cup win for the United States and their first since 1995 - thus ending the country's longest drought in the competition since it began in 1900 - and extends their winning streak on home soil back to 1973.
Amazing
Referring to his country's long wait for another success, Roddick said: "It's been a long road. To be here and bring the Cup back to the States is an amazing feeling.
"But more important, just to share the journey with these guys, it's just been so much fun. For us to have our moment, I feel like we really do deserve it.
"We've been the ultimate team, and it's just been a blast and it's been an honour to be a part of that."
The Bryan brothers, ranked the top men's doubles partnership in the world and winners of five grand slam titles, took their own record in the competition to 14-1 after beating Andreev and Davydenko 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 6-2 at the Memorial Coliseum.
World number six Roddick and team-mate James Blake had already got their country off to a flying start on Friday with respective victories against Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny in the singles.
Refreshing change
The 25-year-old also said that bonds within the United States team, captained by Patrick McEnroe, had been strengthend in their quest to retake the Cup and claimed its format came as a refreshing change to the weekly grind of the men's tour.
"The Davis Cup probably doesn't get as much recognition as it should," Roddick continued. "But to have shared the last seven, eight years has been great.
"It wasn't really a seven, eight-year process to try to win the US Open, all of a sudden I was on tour and it happened before it knew it.
"But this has been a journey. Like Patrick said on court, we've been to some places. When you're just with these guys we developed friendships. There's so much that goes into this.
"Winning the US Open, trying to compete for slams, you're playing for a lot of selfish reasons, but to come in here and to share this with these guys and to have developed the friendships and everything that goes along with it, the laughs and the tears, it's just amazing.
"I think we're trying as best we can to enjoy this. It's definitely on par with anything that I've accomplished in tennis."
