US OPEN

August 30, 2005

James Blake

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. Couldn't be better. Definitely good to get a first win, especially when you're coming up against a seeded player after what seems to be perfect preparation, where you're playing and winning a title, but it actually ends up -- I think sometimes can work against you because you just don't feel like you're ready for the tournament. Because you played so many matches, you're on such a high, that it's so easy to get ahead of yourself, to think I'm going to cruise through this one. You get behind on this one, or you get behind a little and you're thinking -- you get down on yourself, you know, "I was making that last week, and I should be making it now." You just think a little too much about that kind of thing, about how good of a week you had the week before. I think it's a lot tougher than people to realize to come from such a high, such little preparation to come here and play as well as I did today. So I'm really happy that I got through it. Now I feel like I'm into the tournament. Now there's no excuses. Now I'm ready to play and hopefully can even improve on this. I feel like I'm getting better and playing even better every time I step on the court.

JAMES BLAKE: I had no idea. No, I didn't notice anything. I mean, for him, obviously his biggest weapon is his serve. That was still coming in huge. That was my biggest concern, getting that back, then taking my shots at passing shots. If I had a baseline rally with him, I liked my chances. Especially taking my forehand to his backhand, you know, that's my strongest suit to possibly his weaker side. I was just trying to work those and get him moving. I didn't know he was in any pain. I apologize if I put him in any more pain.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I'm pretty quick I think (smiling). My mom will like to tell you that it's from her because she was a track star. I don't know where it came from. That's something that's natural. I've worked on it a ton, though. I do a ton of on-court speed and agility and quickness drills. So much of it is I think is the first step. Whether or not I would be quick in a hundred yard dash, I don't know. I mean, I think most of the guys I do end up racing, I've done pretty well against. I haven't timed myself or anything. I know I try to get to a lot of balls and it frustrates other people. You see when guys like Nadal do it, Hewitt, it can frustrate guys. I see them do it. I play against them, I realize how frustrating it is. Now I've worked really hard on my defense, especially to frustrate the heck out of the other guys like I did today and like I now know I can do. It's a part of my game that I probably wasn't as good at and didn't like doing at all when I was 19, 20, 21 years old. But now I realize I got to try to have every part of the game, partly due to examples like Roger Federer, guys who are raising the bar every single day. He has an unbelievable offensive ability, but he also plays the best defense I think in the world - chipping balls, staying in points, making, like you said, hit winners two or three times in a point. If I can do that, I think it's going to help my game and hopefully keep me improving.

JAMES BLAKE: Every single one of them.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. Last week I had, in the Pilot Pen, I was getting towards the end of the week about a hundred tickets a day. I knew just about every single one of them. Like I said, out there, they were all someone special to me, every single one of them there. They're people I live with up in Connecticut, they're the people who live around the corner from me, they're people who have been friends of mine since high school, the parents of my best friends, they're some of my coach's good friends who I see all the time. Like I said, last year I was around Connecticut all the time when I was sick, when I was injured, when my father was sick. I was around there all the time. Those were the people that were over my house the most. Those were the people that I would go see. I wasn't self-conscious about when I had only basically half a face. I was okay with talking to them. Those were the people that were closest to me. It means so much to be doing that in front of them. They're picking me up now when I'm high. They were picking me up when I was low. I don't know how much I can give back to them, but everything I do, it's probably not enough for how much they've done for me.

JAMES BLAKE: You know, every different scenario I think was going through my head. At times I was thinking I wonder if I'll be able to play again. I wonder if my face will ever come back to normal. Just kind general curiosity as to what life has in store for me. Just trying to think about every situation and find a way to be happy with each situation. You know, if I couldn't play tennis again, am I still going to be happy going back to school, maybe going to business school, doing whatever else I could do. Maybe be in commentary, do anything. Would I be able to be happy? Would I be able to be happy if my eye never came back to normal and I couldn't really into much athletic at all for the rest of my life? Could I find a way to still be happy? All those I tried to answer yes. The reason it made it possible is because even when I was at my lowest, I still had friends. I still had people that knew that that was a possibility. Maybe I would never hit a tennis ball again, but they didn't care. They were still hanging out with me playing cards, shooting the breeze, having dinner with me, just laughing with me. It's a time when that's what I needed, was to laugh. If I have to be the butt of the joke sometimes, that's fine, too. I tell a story, one of my best friends came into the hospital room the day I went down. I realized I couldn't move half my face. He saw me that next day. He just walked in and joked and said, "All right, you got to smile for me." I kind of did. Only half of it worked. He just cracked up laughing, almost fell on the ground laughing. That was exactly what I needed. Everyone else was coming in saying, "Oh, it's going to be all right. Everything will be all right." He just started laughing. I said, "You know what, I'm sure I do look that ridiculous." That's what I needed. People like that I knew were my true friends because he knew exactly what I needed at that time.

JAMES BLAKE: Exactly. It made it so I realized I was going to be happy no matter what happened. Obviously, this only increases and this makes everything icing on the cake, the fact that I'm back to playing the way I'm playing now, in front of these friends, in front of the home crowd, winning my next tournament in Connecticut, winning a first round match over a former finalist here at The Open, on Arthur Ashe Stadium. I mean, it's just a dream.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. Again, another example of a match I wouldn't have won six months ago. I probably wouldn't have won a couple years ago. He had a set point in the first set, I think. Two set points in the second set. I had the confidence, I think I aced him twice in the second set on those set points. Having the confidence to go up after that, keeping your head, just not panicking is something that I've learned now. Just getting a little more perspective because I very easily could have lost those first two sets, been down two sets to love. With his serve, he can steamroll you. I've just learned a little more patience, a little more focus at that time and going after my shots. If they don't go in, they don't go in. You tip your hat to the person that put you in those positions. That's what I tried to do, put him in pressure situations. When he's serving at 5-All, make him hit a few volleys, make him come up with the better serves to beat you. On the tiebreaker, he came up with some pretty good serves. I came up with some good passing shots. Just try to make him come up with a better volley. If you put someone in those positions enough times, they come up with it, you tip your hat and say, "You played better than me today." If they don't, you walk off and walk into the next round.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, he was -- he learned tennis a little bit later in life. Once he got into it, he attacked it with the same vigor that he did with everything. It's actually how he met my mom. He just loved the game, wanted to play non-stop. She happened to be one of the better players at the park where they met. He always would want to hit with her. So they did. They both played for fun all the time. My brother and I would watch them, want to hit a few balls at the end. So we did. They kind of taught us the basics. My dad volunteered at the Harlem Junior Tennis Program. Took both of us there. Helped both of us learn the game there. Throughout my kind of growth, when I was five, six, seven, eight years old, playing for fun, but enjoying it, he was the one that would take me out and hit balls with me. We'd hit with the family, me and my mom, him and my brother or whatever. It got to the point when I was probably 13, 14 years old where he realized, you know, I needed a coach because it's tough to listen to your father as your coach as well when he's teaching you everything, just about growing up as well as tennis. He turned me over to Brian, somewhat grudgingly. He realized that it was the best thing for me. After that, he didn't have specifics on my tennis. All he did was preach hard work. He was absolutely not someone that didn't practice what he preached. He was the hardest worker I've ever known, whether it came to whatever he took up. When he took up golf late in life he worked as hard as he could to get better at it. In terms of work, I never saw him miss a day of work for being sick or anything, except for his family, when he would take us to national tournaments, things like that. He wouldn't ever miss a day for being sick. He taught me about hard work, the joy of hard work for just improving yourself. You know, he knew. Once you take up golf at 40 years old, you're not going to be a pro golfer. You're not going to have any unbelievable accomplishments. But he just wanted to get better. He enjoyed that. He just loved that feeling. He instilled that in me and that's why I do go out and practice and that's why I know when I'm done playing tennis, I'm still going to find other things that I want to challenge myself at and get better at. All of that hard work and teaching that he did taught me more about life. It translated in my mind to tennis, to enjoying the hard work, to getting better, to accomplishing everything I can in this game.

JAMES BLAKE: You know, I'm trying. In my mind, I feel like I'm playing better than I was a few years ago when I was 22 in the world or whatever I was ranked. I really do feel like I'm a better player now. Obviously, the game continues getting better. Whoever's 22 in the world right now is probably better than I was at 22 in the world a few years ago. I feel like I'm a better player. I'm interested to see how far it's going to go. I've beaten some top players. I've beaten guys like Tommy Haas, who's in my mind a top 10 talent, Greg Rusedski today. I know I can beat some top guys, but it's just going to be fun to see how far up I can go. I feel like I'm playing great tennis, but I also feel like Robby Ginepri is playing great tennis. He's winning Indianapolis, doing really well in Cincinnati. I think the Americans are going to be just fine. Taylor is playing well. Top 20 in the world, I think, Top 25. Mardy has unfortunately had some injuries. It does still seem like Andy's the leader of the pack and will continue to be the leader of the pack, but we're all doing our best. I think we all hit a little slump at one point. Robby's was last year. Mine was possibly the beginning of last year. Mardy's might be kind of right now with his injury. But we're all I think better and wiser for it and now know, "Okay, the pressure's off. Andy has done everything he's going to accomplish. He's going to be a superstar in tennis." The rest of us, we're not going to be compared to Sampras and Agassi any more or Todd Martin or Michael Chang or MaliVai Washington or Jim Courier. That generation, I think people are now realizing was kind of a freak phenomenon, just an unbelievable time in American tennis. We've realized how to deal with the pressure or if we need just to take all the pressure off. Whatever we figured out for our individual selves is what we've done now to succeed. Taylor is having success again. Robby is having success again. I'm having success again. It just feels good. Now I think we're really going to see our true potential and see how well we can do.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I did watch it a little bit. It was tough to watch. It was at a time when a bunch of my friends were coming over. A lot of them were tennis players when they were kids, so they wanted to watch it. I was kind of watching it out of the corner of my eye, seeing a little bit. I always watched when my friends were playing. I watched when Mardy was playing, I watched when Andy was playing, I watched a little bit of Andre. But it was tough to consistently watch it just because I kept thinking, I wonder how I'd be doing if I was there. It was a little difficult since I'd been in it the last few years and played so well and had so many emotions on that court. Now this year to go out there, just a great feeling. I knew it was going to be pretty emotional when I walked out. I made sure to calm down a little bit before I walked out there. Once I got into the match, I didn't really think about it too much, especially being up at the beginning. I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself, even though he broke me back. I just wanted to stay focused and worry about just playing one point at a time, winning the match, winning the set, winning that game or whatever. And then I'd think about it. It really didn't hit me till afterwards when I was thanking the crowd or just kind of walking out to see them, kind of how far I'd come, what a difference a year makes, just the feeling that I had out there. It took until the end of that match. There was no point really during that match that I thought about everything else that had gone on until I stopped. Once you stop, to have time to think about it, man, it's a good feeling, knowing I'm sharing it with my family and friends.

JAMES BLAKE: I don't know. I mean, it's tough to settle it at the US Open when it's played on clay. It's difficult to say. I think Patrick has been put in a tricky situation, but I think a tricky situation that he maybe enjoys a little more because he's got two guys playing so well to pick from. It's not a choice between who wants to play or who doesn't want to play or who's healthy or who's not, just who's kind of won by attrition. Robby and I have in my mind legitimately earned spots on that team. If I go -- I always said I wanted to get back on the Davis Cup team, but I want to earn my way back on it. I don't want to get on just because a lot of other people are playing badly or because a lot of other people don't want to play. I want to earn my way back on. If I get chosen for this one, I'll feel like I earned my way back on. If Robby gets chosen, I'll know that he earned his way back on. I'll be proud of him. I'll support him a hundred percent because he's done such a great job this summer that either one of us I think can do the job and we're going to try to get the US back to the World Group.

JAMES BLAKE: You know, that's a question I think you've got to ask Patrick. I feel a lot more comfortable on clay these days. This year kind of proved that to me. I was a little more clear-minded in my play on clay. Robby obviously had some tough results. But, like I said, I think that was kind of part of his slump where he was kind of realizing how to get back to his game. Now he's back to it obviously. On the hard court, he got some confidence. I think a confident player on any surface is going to be dangerous. It's tough to say. I did probably have a little better results on clay. That might be in Patrick's mind. We'll see when we're done with The Open here, we start hitting on clay. I don't know if he'll take both of us over there, just one of us. I don't know exactly when he'll make his decision. I think he knows that he's got the support of both of us. If he wants me to go, I'll go. If he wants Robby to go, I think Robby will go. We're happy to do our part to help get back there.

JAMES BLAKE: Like I said, that's the confidence he's got back. That's finding his game. He's playing a little bit better defense, as I feel like I'm doing. He's just playing great. I mean, he's playing aggressive when he needs to and defensive when he needs to do that. Like I said, that's part of the growing and the maturation process that we've all had. I've learned much more, in my opinion, at how to play the game. Robby obviously has done the same. That probably will help him because I'm sure Patrick sees how he's been playing. He's been watching. He's got a great view from the commentary booth. He's seen a lot of him. I really don't know. Like I said, it's a tough decision for him. I wouldn't want to be in his position. It's a good tough position because we're both playing so well. I think he can have confidence either way he goes.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, it's probably mixed emotions because it's tough to know that someone's getting better like the way he is, and he really is, like you said, dominant. Secretly I think everyone's happy for him. All right, maybe not so secretly. He's just a great guy. Easy to cheer for. Pretty much when I'm out of a tournament, I'm hoping he's doing well. You know, after a match, when he shakes someone's hand, you're generally going to say good luck, good match. He's one of the guys you really go up there and genuinely mean good luck, go win the tournament, we're all proud of you. It's part of being a fan, is you love watching history being made. I think people love the drama of seeing if Barry Bonds is going to break Hank Aaron's record. We're going to love I think in the years to come of watching the drama of whether Roger is going to break Pete's records. He's already cemented his place as one of the greats of all time. He's on his way to possibly being "the" greatest of all time, and that's fun for us to say we've played against him. I'm sure it's even more frustrating, though, and more mixed emotions for guys like Roddick and Hewitt and Safin who collectively would have probably four or five more Grand Slams if it wasn't for Roger. That's tough to deal with. As I've told Andy, we're all so proud of him. If it wasn't for Roger, he'd have a few more Grand Slams. It's a tricky situation too be growing up at a time when you're playing one of the best in the world. I'm sure guys that came up against Sampras in his prime, Ivanisevic would have had a couple more Grand Slams if it wasn't for a guy named Sampras. Luckily the guys who have been dominant like that have also been class acts - Sampras, Roger. Like I said, it's fun to cheer for them, too, once I'm out of the tournament, though.