US OPEN

September 1, 2005

James Blake

JAMES BLAKE: Very excited to be out there. I kind of knew what to expect with what I've been going through the last week and a half, with my friends and family coming out. I don't think Igor quite did. It hit him pretty quickly there; they were pretty vocal. That's just a lot of fun. I mean, last year watching this on TV, this is kind of what I was dreaming of, was playing a night match at the Open again. Since I was a little kid, I never really thought it was possible. Now I've done it a few times. It gets better and better every time. This might be the first one I've won, though -- oh, no, second one I've won. But, still, it's pretty exciting.

JAMES BLAKE: I think so. I think the game has gotten better. It continues to, I think. But I still definitely feel like I'm a better player than when I was 22. There are certain things that have improved: My defense has improved a lot, my serve has improved a lot. I feel like mentally I'm just a little stronger. I don't think there is any way I would be able to do what I'm doing right now two or three years ago. Just be in so many close matches, points that a match could hinge on, that I've stayed calm, gone for my shots, and had the confidence to do that. Also, coming from a win, such a high, in your home state, around all your friends, to come here two days later and beat a Top 30 player in straight sets, I don't think I would have been mature enough to do that a couple of years ago. I would have gotten ahead of myself, if I get up an early break, or gotten down on myself after any kind of bad call or something. Just though, you know, "I don't need this. I just won a tournament." Now I'm just looking at winning every point, trying to do that, and kind of micromanaging out there. It's working out right now, and I think it's helping to make it so I can go on these kind of runs.

JAMES BLAKE: First of all, I got to beat Rafael Nadal, which is not an easy task at all. He's -- I mean, I think before this hard court season, a lot of people would have considered he's just a clay court specialist, so he's probably not a favorite to win the Open. But then what he did in Montreal was incredibly impressive, especially from what I heard - I wasn't there - but those courts were also pretty quick. So for him to go through that draw, also beating a legend like Andre Agassi in the finals on pretty quick courts, is very impressive. It makes him, in my mind, one of the favorites to win this. So I got to worry about that. Like I said, I was doing some micromanaging on the court, playing point by point. I'm not going to look ahead and say what I need to do to win this whole tournament; I need to figure out what I need to do to beat Rafael Nadal. That's what I'm going to concentrate on the next day and a half with my coach and just get ready for that match.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I mean, I hear them, but I probably don't hear them as much as they'd like me to. They ask me afterwards, "Did you hear when we said this?" "Did you hear when we said that?" "We did this chant," and that. Most of the time I say, "No, sorry, I didn't hear that one. That was pretty funny, but I didn't hear it. But glad you did it." I'll hear usually one or two when it gets real quiet and I'll hear, you know, specifically I hear that's Matt's voice, that's Bob's voice, that's someone's voice that I recognize or whatever. But most of the time I just hear the fact that they're cheering for me. It's a good feeling, and I know that I got them behind me. I hit a good shot, I'm pumped up. And to hear them get fired up, it just makes it that much more emotional. If I'm down, I know I have them to count on to pick me up pretty quickly and not let myself get too far down on myself.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I would say it's an opportunity. I got to start talking to Jim Curley or somebody about getting me some better draws (smiling). But, you know, this is an opportunity I had a couple years ago, playing on a Saturday against Lleyton Hewitt. Did it a couple years ago, that was another night match against Federer. You know, it was fun. I had pretty good matches with both of them. Took Lleyton to five sets, I really had some chances to win that match. Roger at that point I thought was playing unbelievable. I didn't play badly at all. I lost in three really close sets. We had a really fun match. High-level tennis. I expect really high-level tennis again on Saturday. I couldn't quite break through those two times; this time, maybe it's different. Maybe it will be different. I'm a little stronger mentally, I think, possibly a little better prepared. Had a lot of matches lately, but I feel like I'm still prepared for this.

JAMES BLAKE: Chris Wallace with the ATP said that the USTA had organized it. And, as you can see, I've been a Mets fan for a long time. Both my parents are Mets fans. Around '86 was about the first time I probably started watching baseball, so that's kind of one of my favorite all-time teams, those '86 Mets. To get out there and do what I did, I got to take batting practice in Houston, throwing out the first pitch at Fenway and Cincinnati, that's a ton of fun. But to do it at Shea is really special for me. I met Steve Trachsel, Marlon Anderson, just had a lot of fun with the guys. Sandy Alomar was throwing me the batting practice. It's something that made my coach way too nervous; thought I was going to get hurt, or get blisters on my hand, throw out my back. I told him I wouldn't completely swing for the fences, which of course was a lie. But I managed not to get hurt, and I made it back.

JAMES BLAKE: I didn't. Had a ground rule double, but all the guys were saying I wouldn't be able to do it. The wind was blowing - as all of you saw in the tennis - so hard and it was blowing straight in from leftfield. So I had no chance. I'm not quite as big and strong as those guys, but I'll hit the gym before next year and get out there and hopefully get one out.

JAMES BLAKE: I saw little parts of it. I was actually watching a movie last night. And just when the movie ended, I think it was still middle of the third set, so I saw a little bit. But I was actually getting ready to go to sleep then, so I saw it kind of as I was going to sleep. I saw Rafael get up, I want to say 5-2, then turned it off. I saw Scoville, the score, looked like he broke him back then, which was a good effort for Scoville. The parts I did see, I was real proud of the way Scoville's playing. I think he's doing everything right and he's really on the right track. And him and Torrey have worked hard. I've seen the hard work Scoville's put in. I think he's got a great future and is someone that reminds me a little bit of me back at that age. Actually, probably more advanced than I was at that age. It's really good to see a kid with his head on straight and working hard to get better. That's probably not the answer you're looking for, because you're looking for me to talk about Nadal. Nadal, obviously, I think enough has already been said. He's a great player. Proved it in that match that he -- because I think Scoville was playing well, and Nadal still kind of took it up a notch.

JAMES BLAKE: No, no, it wasn't on purpose. No, it wasn't on purpose. My girlfriend wanted to watch a movie. What am I going to say? She's the boss (smiling). But, no, I know my coach is going to watch that. He watched that, the whole match. So that's kind of why he gets paid the big bucks. He'll tell me what I need to do. For me to watch that whole thing, for me to watch too much tennis during a tournament I'm playing, I think can be detrimental because you're just thinking about what this person can do each point, you're thinking about scouting, you're thinking about what you're going to do. I think about that enough on the court. I need to get away and, like I said, just watch a movie or something. I think that was better for me. I saw, like I said, a few games, couple points here and there. That was enough for me to see that he's playing great, and that Scoville's got a bright future.

JAMES BLAKE: In Scoville, I think partly the work ethic and kind of the -- really the determination he has. When I was that age, I probably wasn't as good as him, but I really wanted to continue to get better. And I had that fight that, you know, he was down two sets to Love, especially down two breaks coming back and breaking again, or break him back, getting it to 5-4, that's something that I always tried to pride myself on, even when I wasn't strong enough physically to compete with these guys or able to -- really have the physical tools to compete with these guys. I wanted to get better, and I wanted to prove myself each time. It seems like he's doing that and he's taking advantage of these opportunities and not being afraid of a big-name player. He beat Jarkko Nieminen last week, beat Bastl here in five sets, and wasn't afraid when he played Nadal. I think that's something I see in myself. He's got some athleticism, but it's also kind of raw right now. He doesn't look like he's going to jump on to the scene like an Andy Roddick and be Top 10 in the world, Top 20 in the world right away. But you can see there that with some hard work that he can achieve a lot of great things in the sport, but it might take a few years. For me it did take a few years. I think in my mind I see him and I think he's got a couple years of hard work ahead of him, and he'll really, really appreciate everything that starts coming his way in a few years when he sees that all come to fruition. I'm really excited to see that, and I hope I'm around the whole time to see him do well.

JAMES BLAKE: "The Longest Yard."

JAMES BLAKE: Oh, perfect. You just did me a favor. This is from a buddy of mine from high school, TJ Bebco (phonetic spelling), started a hat company. If you guys watch the show "The Cut," Chris Cortez is on that, the one with Tommy Hilfiger. They started a hat company, they both went to my high school, it's called Christopher Thomas. You can check it out at ChristopherThomas.com. He gave me a couple of hats. I told him I'd wear them in press conferences.

JAMES BLAKE: I don't know the name of it, but it's a Christopher Thomas original.