US OPEN

August 31, 2001

James Blake

MODERATOR: Questions, please.

JAMES BLAKE: After the match, he said, "Congratulations, you played a great match." I said, "Good luck, congratulations. You really fought hard." That's the way we ended it. That's the way I feel, that's the way I hope he feels. I felt I played a great match. For two sets I played about as well as I could. Then he really stepped it up. I mean, I lost my condition a little. I take my hat off to him. It's tough. I've been in the situation on the other side where a player is cramping, they don't look good, look really tired. It's tough to play in that situation. You don't know whether you should go more. Looked like maybe he'd gotten (inaudible) for a game or two, then he played great tennis, played smart. That's impressive, especially for I'm not sure how old he is, especially for a 20-year-old. Shows he has been out here for a while and he knows what he's doing. He played exceptional in the tennis and he's four in the world because of it.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I mean, I'd love to see the tape. I haven't had much time. I've been kind of going through a lot of stuff here with the loss of condition, then playing the mixed doubles match. You know, there are a lot of things that are said on a tennis court under your breath, to an umpire, in an argument or whatever. I mean, you're just trying to go out there and win a match. I don't know if what he said would be offensive to me. I can't really tell you for sure. I'd love to hear what it is. I probably wouldn't be offended when I'm on the court and I know he's just trying to win a tennis match and he might have felt like he got a couple of bad calls or something. There were some calls on big points that didn't go his way. But he made his point to the ref or to the umpire, I guess, then he went back, put his head down and played great tennis.

JAMES BLAKE: No. I would never say that. Racially sensitive comments, really they are unexcusable. But I don't know. I don't know exactly what he said, if I heard it right, what he meant. When we were out there, I was just trying to win the tennis match, and so was he. After the match, if he had said something to me, said something offensive, I would be the first one to tell you guys. After the match he said, "Great playing and I hope you're okay." So, I mean, he said nothing but good things. I have nothing but good things to say about him, especially his tennis. I don't know him extremely well as a person. Maybe we'll get to know each other. I'm sure we'll both be out on tour for many years. I'm sure we will get to know each other better. We'll see how we get along personally. But, I mean, on the court, I have nothing but respect for him.

JAMES BLAKE: He knows that I won't quit. I don't think I've ever retired from a match in my life. I just feel like, you know if you're out there, you've got to give yourself a chance to win. I mean, you have no chance of winning if you're just going up and shaking his hand. Even in that fifth set, obviously the score board didn't look good, but I was giving it my all. All that I had in me, I was trying to do out there. Really nothing I could do. He's the toughest guy in the world I think to try to just blow off the court with, you know, a couple of big serves or a couple of big forehands. It just happened to be that he's the toughest guy in the world to do that against. That's why he beat me 6-Love in the fifth set. He fought hard and continued not letting it get to him that I was struggling with my physical condition. He did a great job. My dad's right, I wouldn't have quit. Even down 5-Love, I wanted to fight, get one on the score board. I mean, you never know what can happen.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I get from that what you told me. I can't speak on behalf of -- I mean, it's tough to speak on something that you hear secondhand from you because I didn't see the videotape. I will look at it later, I'm sure. Actually, I probably won't because I probably won't dwell on it (laughter). Sorry about that, but... I'd just rather not get into it. You know, I mean, like I said, we will be out here for many years together. I really hope I stay tennis-wise at this level. I feel very encouraged by the tennis I played today that I can stay at this level. You know, we'll be out here for a long time. I'll be happy to get to know him and see what his feelings are on those kind of issues, and in no sort of way try to press him or talk to him with any sort of animosity, you know, just as friends and colleagues out here. I mean, we're all, I mean, just trying to make a living and having a good time traveling around the world. I feel lucky just to be out here. So I just want to, you know, have some fun with him. I'm sure he will down the road. It's just one match where he may or may not have made some sort of remark in the heat of battle that he may or may not regret. I don't know. But, you know, I think we'll both get by.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, it's tough because I would like to talk about the fact that I played a great match. I wouldn't say I completely ignore racial issues, which is a completely different thing than thinking the best of people. I do try to give people the benefit of the doubt and think the best of them. I think racial issues right now in my career, speaking about tennis, I mean, I'm really just trying to break on the scene right now. It's been a little bit of a journey for me the last two years. I've kind of progressed steadily. I feel like I'm getting there. So it's tough to concentrate on racial issues at the same time as concentrating on my tennis. I feel that I will definitely be active in it when my career's over or when my career's coming towards an end. Right now I haven't had too many incidences where it's become a big problem. Just happens that here at the biggest stage I've really played on, I have one incident that you guys are talking about today. And also William Washington's protests here, those have come up. You know, it's too bad that it happens to be a time when I really want to concentrate on my tennis. I'm in no way just going to shy away from anything that happens. Obviously, if something clear-cut happens, I'm going to speak out on it. Right now I just don't feel like it's the time. I mean, I don't have all the facts, I don't think. I don't know Lleyton very well, so...

JAMES BLAKE: It was. It was absolutely unbelievable. In that fifth set, right at the beginning when heard, they really started, "Let's go, Blake." I was kind of pushing back tears. I remember being in that stadium watching so many matches, being six years old with my dad, seven years old with my dad and other kids from the neighborhood, thinking, "These players on the court are unbelievable to me." I couldn't imagine being that good at tennis. I was absolutely in awe of them. To be in that stadium, not get blown off the court, to really feel like they enjoyed the match out there, they had a good time coming to watch me play tennis, I mean, it shows me how far I've come. It was amazing to me. I had to stop for a second. That may have actually played more of a role in my concentration than anything Lleyton said. I had to think about it. Probably took me two points to get back to the fact that I was out there playing a tennis match. All these people were enjoying themselves and coming to match me and Lleyton play tennis. I mean, it was amazing for me. I really look forward to many years coming back to the US Open and hopefully having a lot of crowds supporting me.

JAMES BLAKE: I felt a little lighter (smiling). No, actually, obviously when that was going on, I felt terrible. I mean, I just drank -- I felt twinges of cramps coming on, I had this emergency drink that had quite a bit of sodium in it to replenish and get it into my bloodstream quickly, get my muscles fully hydrated again. I think I drank it too fast because everything then came back up. For that next game, I think I might have actually won the game, but every time I went up to serve, my stomach was cramping from the vomiting so match. My stomach was just like a knot right there. It was really tough to get through. I was afraid it would spread. Sometimes when you start thinking about it that much, it spreads to the rest of your body, you start cramping up pretty bad. I was hoping that wouldn't happen really trying to get through those two games. Doug Spreen said, "If you make it through a couple of games, it will start getting better and better. You'll be able to get some fluids in you and hopefully you'll be all right." I was kind of encouraged by that and thought if I don't win the fourth set, maybe I'll be okay in the fifth set. I still put a lot of pressure on that fourth set. I really wanted to win it. I had my chances. I thought I played all right. He played great, though. I did start feeling a little better, but still I was making a conscious effort not to really strain for any balls. A couple of times going up for serves, I felt cramping going through my side. It's just a tough feeling out there to feel like you really want to play. I wasn't tired. It was just that my muscles were cramping up. It's really a tough feeling. I would have liked to have put in a better effort in that fifth set. But I did all I could. I can't be ashamed of what I did out there.

JAMES BLAKE: He's an absolutely fantastic guy. He was just so nice and complimentary. After the match, I just told him he's got my vote for the sportsmanship award every year he's on tour. He said, "Now do you believe that you can beat me?" About a year before I had been talking to him and he had joked about the fact that I would have beaten him or something the way he was playing. I said, "Yeah, right. I mean, I couldn't even come close. I shouldn't be on the same court as you." He said, "Now do you believe you could beat me?" I came close to taking one set. It made me think I have come a long way in that year. Maybe I do belong on the same court. Maybe I could beat someone like him. He just said, "I think you've got a great game. A lot of hard work ahead of you. You can do this, if you want to." I really do. That meant a lot to me, to have a veteran like him just candidly speaking say he believes I can do something like that. I felt great about that. He's such a classy guy. We're going to miss him on tour when he takes a break. I hope he comes back. But we'll see.

JAMES BLAKE: I'm going to take some confidence. Definitely two years ago when I was here at The Open, I played Chris Woodruff, I think he was ranked 50 or 60 in the world. I got blown off the court. I didn't belong on the court with him that day. I came in here. I beat a good player, David Sanchez, first round. I took one of the best in the world to the limit on a surface that's pretty good for him at a time when it seems like he's playing pretty well. From this, I'm going to take all the movement in the summer, I've been kind of starting to move up, it's hopefully not a fluke. As I keep getting more and more confidence, I feel like I'm playing better and better. I'm really enjoying it and hoping I can see how far I can take it, hoping to see how much better I can get and how high my ranking can go, how much more fun I can have.

JAMES BLAKE: Two.

JAMES BLAKE: Sure. First year I came out of college. I played about as well as I could in college. I had done all I could trying to work harder than anyone in college. I ended up the year No. 1 in college. Disappointing losing the finals of the NCAAs. Started out, had mild success in a challenger or something. I just never really had any big wins. I had a few opportunities. USTA gave me some wildcards into big events. I just couldn't capitalize. I couldn't put together a full match of good tennis. I really then realized that it's a different level of working hard out here on tour than it is in college. I just tried to adjust to that and tried to keep getting better. I was getting a little frustrated because I'm so competitive and I want to win in every match, I realize you can learn from your losses and try to take as much as you can from them. For me it's actually -- I actually end up working a lot harder after I lose. After a match like this, if I hadn't cramped and thrown up, I'd like to get out and work even harder, figure out what I did wrong, why I lost the match. You can always work on things then. I just kept doing that. I kept trying to plug away, plug away, get some wins. A lot of people, a lot of veterans, coaches said, "We really believe in you. We think you've got great things." For a while, I didn't believe them. I just wanted to work hard, see how I could do. I'm starting to believe them now. It's a lot of fun.

JAMES BLAKE: I think when I broke him the first time in the second set to get back in it, I just looked up at the crowd. I was fired up. I saw a guy on the roof. He was (looking excited). Every time I would get a set point or something, I saw him, gave a quick glance up there, he was going crazy for me. I figured he was about the biggest fan in there. I appreciated it.