Andy Roddick's form looks good...but not great. Good will get him to the quarters but not beyond.  With so many emerging talents in the men's game, only great will take him further.

When Andy came on the scene, he was a swashbuckling youngster. Bright shirts, a backwards cap and a peacock strut. Now we see Andy in Wimbledon regalia at most tournaments, bill facing forward more often than not. Brad Gilbert gave him some maturity, which was surely needed. Jimmy Connors is giving him some variety, which is sorely needed. But some natural spark is not evident right now. The spark that saw him win three tournaments his first year out and beat Pete Sampras along the way has dimmed with...expectations? Pressure? Failure to evolve?

Remember back when Andy was still with Gilbert, who was trying to get him to move forward in the court more? Andy missed a volley during a match and yelled: "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard." Funny how Connors is telling him essentially the same thing but Andy is only now ready to learn it. Sampras was an excellent baseline player, but his philosophy seemed to be: "Why run yourself ragged back there when you can just bang in a big serve and finish the point on the second shot at the net?" Roddick, hailed as the next coming of Sampras because of his serve, needs to embrace that philosophy wholeheartedly.

Connors also has Andy using a slice backhand more often, which is excellent and essential but again, since Andy seems to go to it a bit too often now, his natural instincts are not kicking in. Never one to rip backhand winners all over the place, the slice still mutes his aggressiveness, especially on the return of serve. He hasn't yet found his right balance between the safer play and the grip-it-and-rip-it style that works so well when it's on.

Winning the big ones takes more than talent and preparation; you also have to have the attitude and with Andy's game in flux, he doesn't have the attitude to win the US Open this year. Nobody picked Sampras to win it in 2002, no one picked Venus or Serena to win majors this year - but they all had the determination to do it. Sampras was not going to retire until he won one more major. Serena was "ready to die on the court." Venus, well, she just decided to win. But the last times we saw Roddick really leave it on the court were his 21-19 fifth set at the 2003 Aussie Open against El Aynaoui and his inspired performance against Roger Federer in the 2004 Wimbledon final.

Roddick does have the guts and the gumption somewhere down there, but he has to become comfortable enough with the more varied game he's learning to get his strut and his swagger back. Only then will he assume his rightful place as a top threat to win majors.