AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2006

James Blake

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, it's over. It wasn't the cleanest of matches to be perfectly honest, but luckily five minutes after it's over it doesn't matter if it was the best performance you ever put on or you just scraped by. A win's a win. I'm allowed to play in the third round. So I'm excited about that. I mean, right now, I wasn't as pleased with my performance as I played in the first round, but - or as well as I played in Sydney - but I know I have the capability of playing that well and I think I'm going to be proud of it more so tomorrow when I think about the fact that I didn't play my best tennis and I made it through the second round. So I'm excited about that. You know, maybe I had to get one of those out of the way so the rest of the time I'll have some of my best tennis.

JAMES BLAKE: Definitely. My serve didn't feel great. It started getting better at the end. Especially at the beginning I was making way too many mistakes. But luckily I have the confidence now in my game to just keep going for my shots instead of starting to push or let the other guy start dictating and hope for mistakes. I still went for my shots, they were just missing in the first set. That was a little concerning. But, luckily, I have the confidence to keep going for them. I kept going for them and they started going in and it started forcing more errors from him. So that was good, but it still didn't feel like it was, like I said, the best I've ever played. But it's a win. A win's a win and I'm happy to get it.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah.

JAMES BLAKE: Yes, still the same. I mean, I'm in the third round. That means there's only, what, 32 people left. So one out of 32 is not a bad opportunity. I feel, like I said, I'm not worried about today right now. I got through it. I'm excited to get through. And I know I can play better. And there were times when I played well today, there were -- so I know it's not like it's gone forever or anything. Just I didn't have the same consistency that I've been having lately where I'm playing solid kind of throughout the whole time. I had little ups and downs. But the best thing I think now for me to look at, at that match, is the fact that last year at this time I was having ups and downs that were, you know, Everest and Death Valley. Now it's just, you know, little rolling hills. It was, you know, a little up and a little down. It wasn't the huge ups and downs like last year at this time when I didn't have the confidence to keep going for my shots or I didn't have really the faith in my shots. Now I do. And so even when I'm playing bad for a little while, I know it's going to come back and it's just a matter of minor adjustments. So I feel great. I definitely feel like I'm a contender. I mean, I think we're all, once you get into the round of 32, I think most guys still have a chance. Obviously Roger's probably still got the best chance, but he's human, too, and you never know what can happen. I'm excited about the opportunity in front of me.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I think so. I think it was no match practice. I hadn't played any matches. Possibly I wasn't a hundred percent from the virus. The doctors were pretty hazy about when you are better from that, or how long it takes to get better. I mean, they said they've seen cases of that that last three or four years. I was extremely lucky to get back in seven or eight months or however long it took me. I think I may have optimistically rushed back on to the court and just kind of ridden high on a couple of good performances at the Hopman Cup and just tried to convince myself that I'm a hundred percent and I'm back to playing at this level when I don't know if I necessarily was. I mean, it could also just have been no match practice, because if you don't play matches, you're not going to be fresh, you're not going to be sharp when it's the important times during a match - the break points, the set points, things like that. Then you have those huge swings. So that was when I knew I was starting to get back to the confidence level and the level of these guys, is when I wasn't playing well and I was still able to win matches, or I wasn't playing well and I could still at least compete in matches. I wasn't getting blown out. I wasn't having these huge down turns where I felt like I didn't belong on tour. Now almost any match, even if I lose, I feel like I'm, you know, right there, and I have chances. That's what I think the top players do, is they find a way to at least fight in matches. I couldn't do that with my ability last year at this time. So, like I said, I know I've gotten a whole lot better and that excites me.

JAMES BLAKE: I think the US Open probably suits me a little better just because I grew up on that. I feel a little more used to it. I'm a little more comfortable with the movement on that. Here, it is so dangerous with your feet. I think it's notorious for foot and ankle injuries on this stuff. I think a lot of people today now, some of the quicker guys and girls, end up sliding on the hard courts. It's probably not the best tendency, but I've kind of gotten into it. It's something you always have to be conscious of here not to do because those are the times you can really mess up an ankle. And I don't want to do that. So I don't think my movement is quite as good as it is on the hard courts just 'cause I'm so used to that. Otherwise, I think it's definitely just the confidence of knowing the surface. I think maybe if I played a little more on this, it -- well, already I know it suits me pretty well, but I think playing a little more, it might suit me better. I feel like I'm just so at home on those US Open courts.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I am surprised. But, you know, it's something that you got to -- you know, it's something I was warned of beforehand with my coach, we talked about. It's not necessarily the greatest draw to play a qualifier. These guys are good. They've been through three rounds in quallies, one round in the main draw. It's something that you have to fight each point, each game, each time you get up a break or whatever, don't think, "This is easy, I'm playing a qualifier, I'm just going to cruise." I mean, they're fighting. They know they can win. They've just won four matches in a row. And Robby got up two sets to love and that was something my coach talked to me about, these qualifiers are good. Even if you don't know them. And it could be even more dangerous if you don't know them that well. I'm assuming Robby didn't know Gremelmayr that well. I watched the last set of that. The guy played great. He served really well. Took Robby out of it. Robby got a little down on himself. It's very easy to happen. It's unfortunate. I wish he could have pulled through. But, you know, it's gonna happen, unfortunately, to everyone. Little lapse in concentration. The guy takes advantage of that. They got nothing to lose. I mean, guy's down two sets to love, he's got nothing to lose, he might as well start going for it. Robby might get ahead of himself, think about the next round, think about trying to get off the court a little quicker. Before you know it, he's serving for the match. That's tough. You know, I'm confident that Robby is going to learn from it with his coach, Francisco Montana. It's happened to me. It happened to me a few years ago here against Koubek. I learned from it. I tried to become a better person. Happened to me against Agassi, being up two sets to love. Obviously Andre played pretty darn good tennis. But it's going to happen to just about everyone at some point. I hope Robby just learns from it and gets better. I think he will. I watched most of it, most of that last set, and he's hitting the ball great. It was just a matter of staying positive. I think he'll be better for this, hopefully, afterwards.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, first, it was obviously a pretty monumental struggle with just making the mistakes I was making. After that, I started coming in a little more, I started just feeling a little more comfortable executing my game plan as opposed to just trying to at times slap winners and end the point too quickly. I calmed down a little bit, and that's something that I'm pretty proud of that I'm doing better. Even after losing the first set, being calm still and not getting kind of quicker and quicker and quicker. I used to have tendencies of, you know, you're down, you just grab the ball and go serve. You don't think as much. Now I'm thinking a little bit more, just thinking, "Okay, I still got to play the percentages. What percentage play that I make gives me the best chance of winning this point and the next point and the next point?" Instead of just trying to say, "Okay, I'm going to get an ace here, rip the first forehand I get, try to hit a winner." I love playing mindless tennis, but I don't know if it's going to get me as far as actually thinking out on the court once in a while.

JAMES BLAKE: I hope they're not anymore. You know, today it was, but first round it wasn't. And it was just a matter of possibly today of not really knowing the guy. I had never seen him play before. I didn't know completely what to expect. I'd heard a couple scouting reports. It's a little tough when you just really don't know much about the guy. Like I said, I was going for my shots and just missing. That's frustrating. It can happen in a first set, a third set, a fourth set, or a fifth set. I guess I'd probably rather it be the first set than the fifth set, so I'm happy about that.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, he's got it in right now. He's had it in since Monday. So if you get a chance to do an interview with him, make sure to make him smile.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I think every player's going to be asking for it next week since the first week Ljubicic won and the second week I won and we're the bloggers for the week. I think there might be a line to do it. But it's something that's fun. I mean, I really like the fact that the ATP is thinking of different ways to promote the sport. Having a blogg, there were a couple of players on tour that originally thought that that first one was kind of boring, like there wasn't -- but then you saw the responses from other people. They were like, Really, I didn't know what you guys did on a day off, or how many racquets you get strung. To us, I mean, this is our life so it's pretty normal. We don't think about it as being exciting or the fact that we -- what we're reading or what we're watching on TV. But to fans, I think some of us didn't realize that they actually care about that kind of stuff and they want to know the little details that go into our lives. They see us for two hours in a day and then they really have no idea about the rest of our lives. For them to know that an hour before the match we're making sure to eat a couple pieces of fruit and then, you know, not eat anything else and do our stretching and listen to this music, it's interesting to them. So I think it's great to let people in to knowing a littlee bit more about each person. You know, for me, last week, to see that my friends are doing stupid things, going out to Bondi Beach and getting caught in the rip tide and everything, I think it's good for them to see that I have fun outside of the tennis court. I'm not just thinking about tennis 24/7. I think that helps the fans, so I think it's a really good idea that the ATP is doing. Hopefully, it gives a little background story to every player on the tour. If you look at the Top 100, I'm going to say there's at least 90 very interesting stories out there of guys who have made it through challengers, guys who shot up the rankings, guys who were great Juniors, guys who didn't play tennis until later in life. Just a lot of things people don't know about these guys. And that gives it a little bit of a window. I think it's great, and I'm really excited about the fact that I won, did a blogg, everyone was excited in it, and it turned out to be a pretty good week.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, it was a bet. We made it around I think last year, it might have been at this tournament. I don't know. But it was last year when I was having those ups and downs, really wasn't playing that well. I think my coach just kind of, to buoy my spirits, said, We have to think of another bet. We had an original one for if I ever won an ATP match. That was when I was still in the challengers and losing first and second round in those. That was for him to go sky diving. I said we need to make another bet. We weren't sure if I was ever really going to be back to a hundred percent, if I was ever going to be back to this level again kind of. We were thinking, thinking, thinking. I said whatever tournament I win, the next Grand Slam, you have to wear a gold tooth for the whole time I'm in the tournament. So I won New Haven and then, unfortunately, the next day we drove right down to the city and we were starting -- I was playing probably the next day. We didn't have time to find anything. He said, Okay, we'll do it the next one. He kind of got off easy. He didn't have to anything because I won Stockholm as well, then Sydney. This is all actually going back to New Haven. He was trying hard to get out of it, but we put so much pressure on him last week that he had to do it. And we went to a costume shop and got just -- it looks ridiculous, it's got a skull and crossbones on it. It's for like a pirate costume basically. He had a tough time getting it on, but now he's got it on all day. Make sure to make him smile when you see him.