Why Andy Roddick threw out his trophies

Andy Roddick. Photo / Getty

Former world tennis number one Andy Roddick threw out nearly all of the silverware during a house clean, his wife has revealed.

Roddick won 32 titles during a career in which he amassed more than US$20.6m in prizemoney.

However his wife Brooklyn Decker revealed in an interview in People magazine that the 2003 US Open champion got rid of most of his trophies.

"We have his US Open trophy," Decker told People magazine. "But all his other trophies Andy threw away in the garbage."

"It was really upsetting," Decker said.

"He did it one day when I was out of town. [He] decided that these don't mean success to me, these don't define me and I don't really care to have these material things sitting around the house, so he threw them in the trash. I think he saved a few but they are not on display."