It was the wear and tear of practice, not the stresses and strains of competition, that ultimately drove Roddick to bid farewell to the touring life.

“I’m not graceful like Roger,” Roddick said, referring to the 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer. “I feel like I have to use a lot more effort, a lot more of my physical tools to play. The way you saw me when I was playing was the way I went about every practice. My body kept asking for more, and I’m not sure that I had more to give. The recovery became hard.”

Roddick was headed out the locker room door as he spoke, after showering and changing into street clothes. He left behind Murray, who was face down on a massage table, submitting to at least a minute of deep-tissue work for every game in the match.

“That’s what people don’t see,” said Roddick, who has also played an exhibition match in Toronto and a World Team Tennis event since retiring. “It’s a full-time job and not just the two hours people see on the court. It starts when you wake up and you probably stretch and you eat right and you go through the process of a day. It’s a lot to ask if you’re not totally committed to it.”

One of Roddick’s good friends in tennis is Serena Williams, the former women’s world No. 1 who won her 14th and 15th Grand Slam titles before her 31st birthday in September. Williams, now ranked No. 3 despite playing fewer events than anybody else in the top 20, has been criticized for her limited schedule. Roddick, the 2003 United States Open champion, said that if he had Williams’s natural talent, he might have been able to extend his career by pacing himself better.

Roddick, who won 32 ATP titles, including two this year, said: “I often say to her, ‘Maybe the years when you kind of weren’t there, maybe they’re helping you now.’ I was just nose to the grindstone. Maybe she was some kind of genius when everyone was criticizing her for it.”