Roddick vote of confidence for new ATP boss Melbourne

Melbourne, Jan 20 (DPA) Andy Roddick says he's impressed with new ATP boss Adam Helfant, after meeting his fellow American at the Australian Open.

'I actually was lucky enough to have dinner with him the other night. I was pretty impressed,' said Roddick. 'He didn't come in with kind of this braggadocio attitude of what he's done, whatever. He kind of came in and he had his notepad and his pen, and he asked questions, and he wrote down notes. He didn't come in like a know-it-all.'

Helfant is new to tennis, having previously negotiated contracts for Nike, which brought him into contact with the elite world of major players including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Critics fear that the newly chosen executive will face a steep learning curve to get a true grounding in the game. None of that bothers Roddick.

'It was an impressive meeting, that's for sure,' he said. 'After the meeting, I was glad that they had chosen him.'