AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2003

James Blake

MODERATOR: Questions for James.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. I mean, I still get jitters a little bit once in a while. Coming out on to Rod Laver Arena, I was a little tentative, definitely didn't have my rhythm in the beginning. After I lost the second set, it was kind of a wake-up call. I needed to stop being tentative and waiting for him to miss. Especially in Grand Slams, guys are too good to let you win that way, so I have to take it to them and try to win it on my own. That's what I did. For the third and fourth sets, I tried to be a little more aggressive and play my game and just see if my forehands and my serve was going in. Luckily more went in than out in the third and fourth set. I felt like I was able to dictate play. I definitely felt like I got my rhythm in that third and fourth set.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. I mean, definitely, you know, I love playing tennis. You know, it makes it even more fun playing in front of a big crowd like that. That's something that's always a joy for me, to play in front of a big crowd, and to get a win, too, that's pretty exciting. It's definitely a new experience out on Rod Laver Arena. It was a lot of fun.

JAMES BLAKE: Probably not at all. Against Marat, I know I kind of have no pressure. He's the defending runner-up. Obviously, he's a Grand Slam champion. I kind of would have nothing to lose going against Schuettler. Some people might expect me to win that match. But I've seen him play for the last couple weeks, and he's playing great tennis. It's definitely not going to be easy. I'm not looking at all past that. He's a great player and has done well here in the past, I believe, and is just a really good veteran, knows how to play the game and can make you work really hard.

JAMES BLAKE: Absolutely. My friends don't let me complain. Any time I mention anything about, "I lost today," or something, they remind me of my job, how great it is, the fact that I sometimes need to pinch myself and think about the fact that I'm out on an arena like this today and playing a sport that I love for a living, the fact that, I mean, I don't think anyone would have guessed that I'd be a professional athlete with the way my body is put together, with as unathletic as I kind of looked when I was younger probably. It's definitely a dream come true. I absolutely love my job.

JAMES BLAKE: I don't know. I think I'd rather follow him in being the nice guy on the tour because he was the nicest guy that I knew really on tour. He was so friendly, such a great guy. I mean, everyone in the locker room liked him. You know, very self-deprecating. Amazing, go out of his way to help a younger player, which he did for me. I'm amazed by that. I told him at the end of the match when I played him, it was kind of a turning point in my career, that he has my vote for sportsmanship award as long as he's on the tour. I think he's a true gentleman of the sport. You know, I'm proud to be mentioned in the same breath as him because he was a great champion. The fact that he took time out to help me is absolutely amazing.

JAMES BLAKE: Politics? I don't know. At first I'd probably have to finish my degree at Harvard. But then you never know. I don't know. I'm too young to think about politics quite yet. I mean, it's definitely something that's interesting to me. I don't know. There's plenty of very diplomatic people. I was definitely humbled when I went to Harvard, how intelligent people are out there in the world, you know, how motivated they are to get things done. It seems like a lot of the people there, by the time they got there, they were 17, 18 years old, they knew they wanted to be politicians. I definitely didn't have that on my agenda. So I might be getting a late start. But anything's possible after I'm done playing. I want to go back and finish my degree at Harvard and then kind of use those two years when I'm back at school to figure out what I want to do.

JAMES BLAKE: No. I went there thinking I would go for four years, maybe try the tour for a couple years, travel around, really enjoy myself when I was, you know, 22, 23 years old, then most likely go back and go to business school. Right now, I'd be grinding it out on Wall Street maybe, working about 12 -, 14-hour days, probably hating life. But I think this worked out all right so far.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I guess that I'm in the second week of a Grand Slam now, which is the first time I've done that. You know, from all the experienced players I've talked to on the tour, they just say, the second week, it's a whole new tournament. That's what I'm looking forward to. I feel like I have possibly reached a new level by beating players like Agassi and Hewitt, proving that I can beat those top players. There's no reason for me to believe that I can't put together now four more matches to possibly win a tournament like this. It's just going to be a lot more experience. I'm learning every time I go out on the court. Last time here I learned a pretty valuable lesson that guys aren't going to give up. I was up two sets and a break. A solid player like Stefan Koubek. I got a little ahead of myself. I learned that lesson last year. Hopefully, I can learn while I'm winning because that's a little more fun, but there's a chance I could lose in the next week or so. I'll try to learn from that. Hopefully I can keep making those steps to get up to that next level. I don't feel like many of the steps in my career have been huge leaps. I feel like everything has been a pretty steady climb. You know, it would be nice to have a huge leap once in a while, maybe go through and get four more wins, but I'm pretty happy with the steady climb that's been going on.

JAMES BLAKE: Sleep a lot. No, I try to spend as much time as I can with my friends. That might be the only drawback I think of this job, is that I'm on the road a lot. When I go home, I like to be with my friends, catch up on what they've been doing in their lives, sit around the pool, barbecue, play a little golf - terribly, but for fun. Just kind of hang out maybe at a beach or something, just relax.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I think possibly starting as many grass roots programs as we can. Obviously, the urban cultures aren't really geared around tennis. It's still viewed as a country club sport in a lot of places. You know, they look up to guys in the NBA and NFL as more realistic than becoming a professional tennis player. I think programs like the Harlem Junior Tennis Program, which I'm very involved in, I think can help out kids. Even if they're not going to become professional tennis players, just to be good citizens. A program like that offers them, you know, a place to go after school, play some tennis if they want to, homework club, get their schoolwork done. It's all volunteer based. They can come in and play tennis for free. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't have that opportunity. The more places like that we can open up I think would be great. Arthur Ashe started a lot of things like that in the Virginia area. As many of those as we could open up would be great. I think it helps having prominent African American players on tour. I'm very proud that I can have youngsters looking up to me and say, "There's someone that came from the same place I did," I can show them that it is possible. Venus and Serena have been great about doing that. Chanda Rubin, Alexandra Stevenson, it's phenomenal they have role models to look up to. I do take that seriously and I try to act as accordingly on the court. Sometimes that racquet does slip out of my hand, but I try to let them know that this is possible, and the best way to go into it is in a sportsmanlike manner.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. It's definitely practical. Nike and I - more Nike with their manufacturers - they were asking me what the best possible situation is. You see a lot of guys doing this while they're playing (pulling up sleeves). They came up with that for an idea. Tommy tried it last year at the US Open, then it came to the ATP and ITF to approve it last year, and they did. Now I'm trying it out, especially when it's in the heat. I tried it out actually before in practice. It feels great. It's just a little less constricting. I think in a year or two there's going to be a lot of guys wearing it just because it's a little less material, so it keeps you a little cooler on a day like today, and you don't have to worry about ever being constricted with the sleeves. I think in a few years, it's going to be pretty common. I just happen to be the first. I'll take any grief I get about my skinny arms in the locker room, and hopefully be a little more comfortable on the court.

JAMES BLAKE: I don't know about that (laughter). I never really thought about that. We practice like that sometimes. I don't know. I'd probably feel a little uncomfortable in front of that many people with my shirt off. This is great for me, the sleeveless, because I feel totally comfortable with it. It's just a little less constricting, so I think it's great.

JAMES BLAKE: I think the best thing for the men's tour is for people to be themselves. If there aren't people that are very enthusiastic, I don't think there's any need for anything to be forced. I enjoy watching people, watching them do press conferences, watching anything where they're themselves. People like Shaquille O'Neal is one of my favorite press conferences to watch because he's himself. He gives one-word answers, jokes, he's having a great time. For me, doing stupid things to my hair, that's what I did when I was a kid, that's what I do now. Wearing a shirt that some other guys might not wear, I like to be a little different sometimes. But that's just my personality. It's not changing anything. I would hope that other people don't try to change just to make things more exciting. I think it's more exciting for me at least to watch people being themselves. You watch Pete Sampras, it's unnatural to watch him getting as fired up as Lleyton Hewitt does every match, just because that's not his personality. I respect Pete for that, and I respect players that keep their emotions in, I respect players who show their emotions and get excited, because that's who they are. I think sometimes you see people at a microphone or in front of fans being just a little halted, a little out of place. You know they're kind of trying to do something that might not be themselves. I much more enjoy people who are just being themselves.

JAMES BLAKE: There's a few Rhodes scholars out here on tour, aren't there? No, I'm just kidding. I have some pretty good times, good discussions on tour. My parents have been around all week, so we've had some good arguments, good-hearted debates that are always fun. It's pretty easy to find stimulation if you just carry a book around with you. I try to keep myself busy with a good book, especially on the plane rides, before you go to bed. Since my parents are, it's great. There are some pretty intelligent players out there, as well, Todd Martin... Let me think of a few more (laughter). Totally just kidding. But, no, there are things I miss a little bit about school sometimes. You know, there are definitely some intelligent guys out on tour. I definitely don't feel like I'm the most intelligent - especially when my brother is around because he makes me feel pretty silly as always, because he's three years older, has always been the bigger, stronger, smarter one in the family. He's always there to keep me in line.

JAMES BLAKE: Yes. I talk to them through e-mail a lot. Thank goodness for e-mail. It makes it so much easier to stay in touch. I always see them kind of checking up on me, telling me congratulations or something. It's a lot of fun to stay in touch with them. We're trying to make it an annual thing that we'll still always go on spring break together. This year we're trying to make it Mardi Gras. I don't know if my schedule will permit it. We definitely keep in touch and try as hard as we can to see each other whenever we get the chance. For me, I travel a lot, so every once in a while when I'm in The States, there will be someone, one of my best friends from school, within an hour, I get a chance to catch up with them. It's a great feeling.

JAMES BLAKE: I tend to read a lot more biographies lately. I'm pretty interested in those. I just read Kurt Cobain's biography, I'm about to read Lance Armstrong's. Right now I'm reading a book called "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore. It's political humor. It's kind of talking about the whole political landscape of the United States. It's pretty funny. It's the same guy that directed the movie "Bowling for Columbine". He's an ultraliberal. It's a really good perspective to get on things. Mostly I read a lot of biographies.

JAMES BLAKE: I can't say I've really had a normal schedule quite yet because I've been so up and down, going through Futures, Challengers. Last year being my first year on the main tour, my schedule was -- I believe I played in 25 regular tour events, and then maybe we had three Davis Cup weeks, then I don't know if I did any exhibitions or not. I was probably on the road just over 30 weeks. Then I got that month and a half or so off right at the end of the year, which was great. I'd love it to be a little longer, but that's life. I mean, that's probably going to be pretty close to my schedule this year. I think I'm going to play maybe 23, 24 tournaments, hopefully four weeks of Davis Cup, all victorious, but we'll see, then some more time off at the end of the year hopefully.

JAMES BLAKE: I did. I actually have a picture with him that I got at the French Open this year. I got it blown up and framed in my room. He's a great person. Seems like he's one of those guys that everything he touches turns to gold. I see him on TV over there now for his music videos. That's something that impresses me quite a bit, because I have about zero musical ability. Someone doing something that I could never dream of doing is very impressive to me. To go from being just a world class athlete to a world class musician shows me how versatile he is. I'm very impressed with everything he does.

JAMES BLAKE: One thing I learned is it hurts a little bit to lose those kind of matches. Losing a five-setter to him, a five-setter to Krajicek, a tough four-setter to Grosjean, it just comes down to a few points, even with the top players. They're still vulnerable, there's still chances you have, and you have to take advantage of those. If you play well enough, you're going to get into a dogfight with a top player. You really have to focus on those big points, the deuce points, breakpoints, try to capitalize on them. You can't get tentative on those, I learned. I think maybe especially I first learned that against Krajicek when I played him. It was 11-9 in the fifth. He's been there before. He went for his big serves, he went for big returns at times. I got a little tentative. Just trying to see if he was going to miss. That's not going to happen in a Grand Slam against a top player in those situations. That's what I've learned. I learned now I'm going to try to go for that a little more and push, kind of force my game onto other people. If it doesn't work, then I just wasn't good enough to win that day. But it's better than having the regrets, thinking, "Maybe I should have gone for it." That's what I've learned. Hopefully I'll get into some more dogfights and prove that I learned my lesson.

JAMES BLAKE: Kind of busy these days. It would be tough to write a whole biography. Also I'm only 23. I don't know if anyone would read it, read my views on life as a 23-year-old. Maybe someday when I'm done, old and gray, I want to tell people about my life. You never know.