No 1 is a role Roddick is playing for keeps

lift your left foot’. So, you lift your left foot, and a shoe goes in. Literally, you’re then sprinting across the studio to your next spot.’’

‘‘The way I see it, the more matches I win, the cooler I get,’’ Roddick said. ‘‘You can ask anyone who knows me, I’m still the biggest dork that ever lived.’’

The dork dates singer-actress Mandy Moore, who has been quick to note the difference between her ga-ga fans and his. ‘‘No one is sending me their underwear,’’ she told the Chicago Sun-Times in the summer. The dork has been photographed shirtless in Rolling Stone, with hair tousled in a ‘Got Milk?’ ad, and with his rock-star pal Dave Matthews backstage. ‘‘It’s funny, I was talking to someone recently and he said you’d better enjoy this time because you have nowhere to go but down now,’’ Roddick said. ‘‘I started laughing.’’

All this time, Roddick thought his only choice was to go up. For four years, he was expected to be the next Andre, the next Pete, the next American hope. For so long, such hype had devoured the sport’s young stars in waiting. But Roddick revelled in it, craved the attention, loved unleashing his inner-thespian and thrived on defying the doubters.

Just two months after winning the US Open for his first major title in September, Roddick secured the year-end No 1 ranking this week during the Masters Series Cup after Andre Agassi defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero to give an insurmountable points lead to his American understudy in superstardom.

‘‘I aim to please,’’ Agassi said Wednesday night. Roddick is a pleaser, too. He works hard at being the un-diva around his American peers, with an every-guy personality that would make him best-man material. Also, Roddick is aware of how important his outreach is to a troubled tour. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe says, ‘‘Maybe growing up in an age where sound-bites matter and popularity makes a difference — all the stuff that makes you feel like it’s a little too much, but goes along with being a big-time pro athlete these days — he has grown up with that. In sports, it’s ‘what have you done for me lately?’ He gets that.’’

Lately, Roddick has been a tour official’s dreamboat. As the anti-Lleyton Hewitt, Roddick is willing to be the sport’s frontman, but the tour has to be careful not to squander this opportunity to regain some of its fan base.

Given the factions within the sport — including the ITF, ATP, WTA, agents and tournament directors — Roddick’s rise is not a cure for the chaos. But Roddick is doing his part, jetting from media blitzes to Davis Cup matches, all while trying to hold his place at trophy presentations. Can he keep his head together? His parents have provided him with grounding, his friends offer him levity and his new neighbour in Austin may offer him some inspiration.

‘‘Lance Armstrong is one of my idols,’’ said Roddick, who recently bought a house in Texas to be near his older brothers. ‘‘It’s one thing to be successful in sports and be a champion, but it’s another thing to do it after you’ve been on your deathbed. Then to dominate, and keep finding inspiration, that’s special. You even look at Andre, how he’s won everything, but still goes out there and fights for every point.’’

To hear Roddick, he is just a dork in a cool guy’s costume, with a little help from the good folks in wardrobe. To tennis, his transformation from next to now has given the sport momentum it should not waste. (The New York Times)