“I was never better than Roger Federer… but on a given day, can I throw a right-hand uppercut and beat Roger? Yeah”- Andy Roddick

Andy Roddick recently recalled his third and last win over Roger Federer in the Round of 32 of the 2012 Miami Open.

Roddick and Federer met each other on the court 24 times from 2001-12 and the Swiss did the majority of the winning as their head-to-head record eventually stood at 21-3 in his favor.

Notably, Roddick earned his first win over the Swiss in the semifinal of the Canadian Open 2003 only after losing four matches in a row. For his second win, which came in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Miami Open, he had to wait for 11 matchups, including two Wimbledon finals in 2004 and 2005 and one at the US Open in 2006.

The American then lost six more matches before claiming his third win in the head-to-head at the 2012 Miami Open. He defeated the Swiss 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4.

In a recent episode of the Served With Andy Roddick podcast, Roddick recalled his memories from the last win suggesting he was not in the best of forms when that happened.

"I spent a decade pretty much only losing to Roger and the last year in Miami, I was playing like a donkey all year, like an absolute donkey and that might be offensive to donkeys, and we match up," he said (17:56).

Roddick accepted being inferior to Federer on the court but shared that he always backed himself every time he stepped on the court with the Swiss.

"I’d go into a Wimbledon final, I had a puncher’s chance, but I believed that not that I was better, but that I could win. There’s a difference between the two, I knew, at scale, I was never better than Roger Federer… but on a given day, can I throw a right-hand uppercut and beat Roger? Yeah," the 41-year-old said.

He then narrated how the Miami encounter was an emotional journey on its own because of his agent, Ken Meyerson passing away a few months prior. He said:

"And this last year, 2012, I had no business winning this match, win the first set in a breaker, lose the second set 6-1, like total points won, he had to be up 20, it was such an outlier that we were tied, break in the third set, and I’m just like choking my way to the finish line for the rest of the set.

"My agent had passed five or six months earlier like I had this thing where I was like having open conversations with him while I was on the court, ‘let’s just get through this, get through this’, in his hometown, his wife was there, it was very emotional for me, end up winning that match. I’m 30 in the world and he’s like two, it makes no sense."

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"Used so much mental reserve in that match against Roger Federer" - Andy Roddick

Andy Roddick in disbelief after defeating Roger Federer at the 2012 Miami Open.

During the same episode of the Served With Andy Roddick podcast, he admitted feeling vehement after scoring the win over Roger Federer at the 2012 Miami Open even though it was only a Round of 32 match.

"I was in the Round of 16, it wasn’t as if I won a tournament, I’ve been to the Round of 16 in Miami 12 times at that point," he said (at 19:24).

The American then disclosed vowing to grow from strength to strength after the win but ended up losing to Juan Monaco in the very next match, suggesting he had no mental grit left to produce a fight. He said:

"I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s turn the year around’, and I go up the next day against Juan Monaco, good player, solid player, also not Roger Federer, lose 5 and 0," he said. Literally couldn’t get myself to fight, used so much mental reserve in that match against Roger and I came up the next day and I was like, ‘I’m trying so hard, I just can’t create this feeling’.

Andy Roddick and Roger Federer never played against each other after that as the former called it a day a few months later.