Andy Roddick’s Father’s Testimony to Dr. Donatelli

As the proud father of Andy Roddick, I met Doctor Donatelli in 2000 during Andy’s first ATP victory in Atlanta, Georgia. At the time, Andy was experiencing some severe shoulder and elbow pain that had been ongoing for some time. Doctor Donatelli started working with Andy and insisted the elbow pain was a direct result of the shoulder problems. Doctor Donatelli was the only person that told us the elbow problem was coming from his shoulder problems. After evaluating Andy, Doctor Donatelli put together an upper body exercise and conditioning program that within one year eliminated the elbow and shoulder pain.

The Donatelli program is unique in many ways. Doctor Donatelli evaluates Andy twice per year, checking for strengths and weaknesses throughout the entire body. With these results, Doctor Donatelli creates a specific program for the next six months. Each of Andy’s evaluations has shown improvement. The last evaluation shows Andy grading out 5 and 5+ in all categories, based on a scale of 1 to 5. I realized early on this was exactly what Andy needed to do to stay healthy. Doctor Donatelly worked on not only preventing injury, but increasing his overall strength and agility. We saw Andy’s serve, as Doctor Donatelli predicted, go from 138 MPH to an astonishing world record 155 MPH, smashing the old record by a full eight MPH!