US OPEN

August 27, 2003

James Blake

MODERATOR: First question.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, didn't quite have the greatest start, but I definitely felt good. I mean, this New York crowd makes such a big difference for me. I think beforehand, every, you know, prediction, you know, everything was that it's gonna be Zabaleta in four, Zabaleta in five, maybe Blake in five. It was gonna be a really close match. I knew it was gonna be a tough match but I don't think a lot of those people counted into the fact how much this crowd really means to me and how much I wanted to win for them. This is where I've played my best tennis throughout my career a lot of times. It's because of the crowd. So I love playing a night match. I mean, it also makes it so the heat's not gonna be a factor, sun's not gonna be a factor. Just makes for a little bit better conditions. I think a lot of times, that favors the better athlete. I just tried to take advantage of that.

JAMES BLAKE: No, what happened was I didn't actually feel like he was playing that great to get up on me 4-1. I just didn't have the best start. I made a couple loose errors to get broken, and, you know, he was serving all right. After that I played just one good game to get back into it. I kind of stopped making as many errors as I had been at the beginning. I was really kind of dictating, doing whatever I could do to push him back. It started working. Then once I got up and started getting rolling, I just got more and more confidence. That third set, being up two sets to love, I just wanted to see if he could beat me every single point. I was trying to not make any errors. You know, if you're not making errors, the guy's got to come back and beat you three straight sets. It's pretty tough. If they do that, all you can do is tip your hat. Luckily, he wasn't able to do that. I think he was a little down after losing that second set and playing a pretty bad game, I thought, to get broken that first time in the third. I just did my best to stay on top of him.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, this time I won. It worked a little better. Just a little -- couple little things different strategically. Don't really need to go into them since I'm probably gonna play him again at some point in my career. Hopefully, that's the big difference of having what I think is, you know, the best coach for me out there. He saw what I was doing, changed it, or helped me change it. We stuck to the game plan. It worked, too. That's really all you can hope for. You execute. Have a bad start, continue to execute, stick to your plan. It worked out. Can't really ask for anything better than that.

JAMES BLAKE: (Laughing). Definitely not. That was pure luck and instinct and the only way I could get to it. So I just popped it up. I think the surprise factor helped because I don't think he thought it was coming back. Then it kept me in the point. I think that was a pretty big point. Might have been even a breakpoint. And, you know, just being out there, you know, sometimes you got to be creative. Definitely not creative in the rest of my life. But on the court once in a while I guess I can get creative.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, another guy I've lost to earlier this year. He played really well at Wimbledon. I wasn't -- definitely wasn't my best, so I know -- I know he's a great player, but this next match he's gonna have to beat a better player than he beat at Wimbledon. I know that, because I've improved a lot. Feeling much more confident, much more comfortable in these surroundings and on hard courts. He's definitely capable of it, but it's gonna be a much better -- much higher level match. I've beaten him before in an exhibition tournament. So I definitely have the confidence. I know I can beat him. It's gonna be a tough match. He's a guy that makes you work really hard, doesn't give you a lot of free points. He's had some pretty good wins this year in Grand Slams - beaten Roddick at the French, Philippoussis at the Australian. He can play well at these Slams. He doesn't give you anything for free. I'm gonna have to be real confident to go for my shots when I get the opportunities and just hope they go in.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I mean, before Wimbledon I really hadn't served, I played a little -- couple practice matches where I was serving about 70, 75 percent. So the first time I really served 100 percent was at Wimbledon. Before that, it was at the French. So not serving for a month is definitely gonna affect your serve. I'd say that match at Wimbledon with Sargis was one of my worst service performances of my pro career. But, you know, that's -- really shouldn't be an excuse. He played well. He took advantage when I wasn't serving that well. That's what top professionals do.

JAMES BLAKE: What's that, the jump overhead?

JAMES BLAKE: That was -- I don't know if I carried it out quite as well as Pete. I have seen some other guys mess that up pretty badly, so at least I didn't shank it. I think it was a pretty important point. It's actually pretty comfortable for me, if you hit a good serve, which Pete does a whole lot more than I do. I get pretty excited when I do it and they just pop it up and I get to jump and have some fun and try to get the crowd into it. You know, they give me such a boost. I got to once in a while give a little something back to make sure they're having a good time. But I'll never be able to do it as well as Pete. There are a lot of things in my game that won't ever be as good as Pete's, and that's probably one of them.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I try to improve every week. I thought I played pretty well in the first set against Andy. Got a little down on myself after that. He's playing the best tennis in the world right now. I can't really hang my head too much about that. I had some chances. In fact, I felt like I played a better set than him in the first set. I thought I could have won that. But that serve is just so tough. It takes you out of your rhythm. You know, if you're up 15-40, you know right away he could ace you three straight times, you know, back to his game point. It's pretty frustrating. You really got to take advantage of your chances. That's another thing I'm learning on tour, is when you get those chances, you really got to go for it and play your best.

JAMES BLAKE: This definitely gives me more confidence. Every match win you get is big. Especially against a player like Zabaleta - who's beaten me earlier on hard courts, a Top 30 player, plays pretty solid. I got a pretty convincing win. That helps my confidence a lot to know I can do that. Probably a lot of question marks going into it as to how well I've been playing or how well he's been playing. I tried to answer them. I'll try to do the same on Friday when I play again. I think every match you kind of got to raise your game a little bit more and possibly at different times. Hopefully I'll be capable of doing it on Friday; you never know.

JAMES BLAKE: You know, that's always Patrick's decision. I feel privileged to be a part of the team always. It's an honor to go. I don't -- I don't worry about the politics. That's why he gets paid the big bucks to make those decisions. Mardy is playing unbelievable right now, as well as he ever has in his career. I feel like I'm playing a lot better now. I had some troubles on the grass, at the beginning of the hard court season, possibly because of my shoulder. But that's his decision. It's not gonna change the fact that me and Mardy are best friends. If he plays, I got all the confidence in the world he's gonna win his two matches. If I play, he's gonna be sitting right there cheering for me. I'm not worried about it. That's Patrick's decision. Whichever one of us plays, we're gonna go out there and give it 100 percent.

JAMES BLAKE: Unbelievable. Unforgettable. One of the best experiences in my life. I'd definitely say that's the most -- the best I felt after a match, that first match with Leander Paes. He was a veteran Davis Cup player. For me to win that match, I felt so nervous going in. I don't get nervous that much in matches anymore. But it's a totally different feeling when you hear advantage USA or game USA and you know you're representing such a great country with so much tennis tradition. It's just incredible. Now, to the point where I almost feel comfortable doing that is amazing. To see how far I've come in a couple years, I'm proud of that. That match, I feel like I grew up about a year in one match. It was incredible. To know that Patrick McEnroe had that confidence in me and the rest of the team was supporting me, it was great. I'm so thankful for Patrick for giving me those opportunities.

JAMES BLAKE: Every time I play on Arthur Ashe Stadium, I think about him. I think about him probably more often than most of the other players, obviously because we have a lot of similarities. But, you know, just the fact that he's such a role model and impressive to me. But not necessarily his tennis. His tennis is unbelievable, but there are a lot of great tennis players. There aren't many people who did what he did off the court. He used every bit of his fame and success to help others to make a difference socially. And then he's stricken with a fatal disease and uses that, which other people in his situation, I'm sure would say, "Why me?" and start getting tons of pity and sympathy. And not him. He turned around, used a negative thing in his life to be a positive and help others even in a worse situation than he was. That outlook on life is something that I think kids should look up to, whether they play tennis, whether they play sports at all. Just that kind of a great person is someone I looked up to and kids should really learn from.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, the fact that he -- I mean, he got my dad into tennis, involved in tennis. He inspired my dad to play tennis. Just the fact that he was so graceful when no one would have blinked an eye if he had gone nuts at so many of the struggles he had to go through at the beginning - to break into an all-white sport, basically. But he did it with such grace and dignity, it made my father want to be like him, want to be a tennis player. Ended up being how he met my mom. I might not even be here if it wasn't for him. I'm pretty thankful for that. Then seeing how much my dad admired him, how much I admire my dad, it's just a matter of, you know, what's that, is that the communicative theory in math? I'm gonna admire him too. Then when my dad gave me some books about him, I was in awe.