Jimmy Connors and Andy Roddick

It is one year, almost to the day, since a chastened Andy Roddick slunk off Centre Court as a third-round Wimbledon loser, desperately seeking direction. Defeat to an inspired Andy Murray had seemed to cement his image as the savage server whose one-dimensional game would always be undone by a more creative talent.

What happened next could have been scripted by any number of redemptive American sports films — Roddick, the wisecracking young buck with untapped potential, persuades Jimmy Connors, the passionate but publicity-shy champion of the old school, out of retirement for one all-for-nothing tilt at glory.

The forging of that alliance, by a swimming pool in Los Angeles last summer, invited much scepticism, yet Roddick’s unfussy march through the first week of the Championships suggests the dynamic has worked to a remarkable degree.

Ostensibly, the key to this success is the fundamental contrast of styles between player and coach. While Roddick has come to favour a merciless onslaught of first serves and forehands, Connors brings the benefits of his more crafty, counter-punching style. There were slight but telling signals in last week’s three routine victories that the student has absorbed a fresh approach — Roddick’s backhand return, for example, has always been unreliable, but against Spain’s Fernando Verdasco it was refined into a potent, topspin-loaded weapon.

Connors’ objective is plainly not to cultivate a player in his own image. His game was based more on a flat return than Roddick’s could ever be, and as such the priority has been to take the gigantic weapon of his protégé’s first serve and augment it with more of the defensive strokes that made him so formidable to face.

The process, if you are to believe Roddick, has been revelatory. “I feel like I have the confidence to hit shots regardless of the score,” he said. “I’m just competing out there every point, not getting down, trying to fight back. You know, that leads to opportunities.”

It is unlikely, with Roger Federer in such form, that Roddick can win Wimbledon just yet, but it is scant surprise that he claims to have been “smiling” from the moment the grasscourt season began. On this surface the ruthless returning tactics imparted by Connors can be employed to fullest effect, and after a fourth win at Queen’s, few could dispute his danger.

Connors has kept his plans private at Wimbledon, but in one off-duty moment he described his pride in Roddick’s progress. “I came back into tennis for one reason, to help Andy to be the best he can be,” he said. “His willingness to accept change, and to incorporate ideas, is incredible.”