Roddick leaves Shanghai with plenty of positives

SHANGHAI, Nov 17 (Reuters) American Andy Roddick left Shanghai today unhappy at exiting the Masters Cup at the round robin stage but confident that he is once again on the right path.

The 24-year-old said he considered taking a break from the sport after a poor start to the year which culminated in a third round defeat at Wimbledon.

With the help of new coach Jimmy Connors he turned his season around and won the Cincinnati Masters, reached the US Open final and forced his way back into the top five in the world.

''There was literally a practice after Wimbledon where I sat down and I couldn't have hit the ball into an ocean from the beach much less a tennis court from the other side,'' Roddick said.

''I literally sat down and said: 'Okay, either you really get after it here or, you know, you just need to take a couple months off or something'.

''I'm glad I chose the first option. If you would have asked me after Wimbledon if I would have put together a second half like I did, I probably would have lied to you and said I believed it, but maybe not have believed it.

''Like I said, I mean, there's a lot to look forward to next year. I played about as ordinary as I could for about nine months of the year and I'm still here five or six in the world.

In a weird way, that's got to be a good thing.'' MORE AGGRESSIVE The big-serving former US Open champion has been working on a more aggressive style of play with former world number one Connors and it nearly paid huge dividends in Shanghai.

Roddick held three match points against current world number one Roger Federer on Tuesday before losing in three sets but limped out of the tournament with defeat to defending champion David Nalbandian yesterday.

''It's a downer, don't get me wrong,'' he said.

''(But) in the last half of the year there were a lot more positives than negatives.

''I feel like I'm only going to get more comfortable playing this new style. I'll have a little bit of time to really work on it.'' Roddick, who said he would continue to work with Connors next year, was looking forward to a vacation and had clearly had enough of media work for one year.

''I'm done with you,'' was his response to a final question about why the US had such a poor recent Davis Cup record.

REUTERS SAM HS1630