"Serena Williams was already bench-pressing dumptrucks" - Andy Roddick reveals truth about losing to legend in their junior days

Andy Roddick recently disclosed that he and Serena Williams had faced off against each other in a practice set when they were coming up on the juniors' tennis circuit. The American insisted that at that point, he was still lagging behind in terms of physical growth relative to the 23-time Major winner, who by his admission was already pretty strong back then.

Having turned pro in 2000, Roddick quickly established himself as one of the best male tennis players of all time by winning the 2003 US Open and spending 13 weeks as the World No. 1 between November 2003 and February 2004. While he suffered with several injuries during the second half of his career, the 32-time ATP titlist still remained a consistent force on the main tour before eventually hanging up his racket at the 2012 US Open.

Since his retirement, Andy Roddick has mostly worked as an analyst, and also recently started his own podcast. Speaking to Tennis Channel this week, the 42-year-old candidly touched upon how he and Serena Williams had clashed on the practice courts once as juniors. He added that the American legend was too good for him on the day, getting the better of him by a scoreline of 6-4.

"So you ask that jokingly, I lost a practice set to Serena. We were at Macy's together and I lost, my career record against Serena is 0 and 1. I lost a set 6-4," Andy Roddick said when asked by Tennis Channel's Steve Weissman whether he had ever faced Serena Williams before.

Roddick then jokingly insisted that Williams' physical conditioning even then was so impressive that she was "bench-pressing dumptrucks" at that point.

"We were the same age but I was dodging rain jobs. At that age she was already bench-pressing dumptrucks, so..." he added.

For those unaware, Andy Roddick and Serena Williams had previously talked about their practice set bout at the 2009 Australian Open as well.

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"Andy Roddick just got jealous because my body was more fit" - Serena Williams

Andy Roddick and Serena Williams at 2007 ESPYs | Image Source: Getty

Roddick and Williams had a hilarious back-and-forth in their respective press conferences in Melbourne in 2009 as the 23-time Major winner claimed that she wasn't that superior to her compatriot in terms of strength, and that their face-off was more even-keeled than he would admit.

"Andy's always exaggerating. I was so small for my age. He was small, too. But he just got jealous because my body was more fit and that my biceps are probably still bigger than his. Andy is incredibly jealous of me. You know, I just don't know why. I can't blame him really," Serena Williams told the media at Australian Open 2009 while laughing.

Two years later, Roddick and Williams later teased the possibility of them joining forces in doubles but alas, neither player ultimately followed up on it.

Edited by Pratham K Sharma