PILOT PEN TENNIS

August 25, 2005

James Blake

JAMES BLAKE: I like to think that every tournament, but realistically I know at the beginning the year I wasn't playing like this and now that I am -- I'd like to think that I am going to be one of those guys that people don't want to play hopefully, especially now my ranking isn't such that I am getting seeded a guy like Tommy Haas I think could have had a much easier draw and could have played the way he did tonight and beaten a lot of guys that aren't seeded. So I am hoping that right now guys are just looking at the draw and hoping not to see my name. Hopefully I can get my ranking up to the point where I am getting seeded and I don't have these kind of tough matches early on in tournaments. That's what I am looking forward to. I am looking at my next match. He has played great so far this week. I like my chances against him. It's so tough in men's tennis right now to say someone is a clear-cut favorite until their name is Federer and Nadel.

JAMES BLAKE: Yes, mainly the level of tennis, it was so high, I played him three times now. First time he was a little injured. Still for me a huge win because it was really early in my career then playing him earlier this year at River Oaks, we had a similar match where it was a great match, high level of tennis all the time. I think he forced you to play such a high level of tennis because he makes so many balls. He plays great defense, he gives you so few free points on your serve that it just makes you -- that's why he gives some of the top names fits like Andy, just because he can return serve so well, and then you have to win the point two or three times so it makes the level of tennis have to be high otherwise going to roll over you. You can't be a little off and beat him.

JAMES BLAKE: That's a big help. Some people I am sure would think of it as pressure. You really want to do well for the home crowd but for me I try to look at pressure as a positive thing because if you don't have pressure it's really not an opportunity to do anything great. The more pressure you have the more of an opportunity it is because you know that there's a reason for that, you know you got a lot of people counting on you and all I can do is do my best. That first set he steam rolled me. He played too good. I wish there was something I could have done but he was playing too well. He was hitting lines, wasn't missing, when I heard that chant, it was starting the second set I had to think start the whole match over again and do everything you have been trying to do so far and just try to execute a little better, maybe take it to him a little more, try to dictate because right now just playing defense isn't working. I had to go after him and it started working. The crowd is getting into it. I got a break early and as soon as I got that break the crowd was on my side like that, made a huge difference to have that feeling.

JAMES BLAKE: (Laughs) only to be expected here at Yale. I still think a lot of them were cheering for me later in the match. So like I said, that's a pretty big deal to have Yale kids cheering for a Harvard guy. I am sure if we had a Yaley up at Harvard they'd be doing the "Yale sucks" chant as well.

JAMES BLAKE: That's pretty routine, right? Normal breakpoint? (Laughter) that was an amazing point. I thought I had it won once, then I thought he had it won when he had kind of a volley that I thought he could have put away and just really ran it down and I thought -- I figured he had to be looking down-the-line because it was a relatively stupid shot to try to go crosscourt with it. Of course I still went for the stupid shot, and impossible angle and luckily I just made got it over the net and he was kind of out of position, had to just dive for it. If he had made that, I don't know what I would have done, but that was a great effort by him and just it shows how well you have to play to get a break to get a head of him. I was fortunate enough that it came on a breakpoint. Those are the kind of points that earlier in the year seemed like I would have missed earlier in the rally or I would have been a little tentative. I wouldn't have had just kind of the clear mind to go for that shot, and if you lose those breakpoints he keeps it on serve and you get a little tight on your serve he wins that match. Those are the kind of points that need to keep going my way. I think with the confidence I have now I am hoping they will.

JAMES BLAKE: Like I said I always try to think that, but I am realistic, I know in men's tennis now anyone can beat anyone. So I never really look too much as there's any one huge favorite or anything like that. I am really hopeful that I can be here on the weekend and Sunday and still talking to you guys Sunday night.

JAMES BLAKE: I am always trying to get forehands basically. It's a pretty simple philosophy, I am trying to get forehands. If it is hitting to his backhand or forehand, if I am going to his backhand it is his strengths, I am trying to open it up and get it back to the forehand. For me, with almost any of the guys on Tour I am trying to get it going forehand to forehand because I have a ton of confidence in that. Even if I am losing some of those it helps my confidence in everything else just hitting that many forehands, I feel really good about it. I did feel like I opened up the court and that was what was rough about the first set, I was hitting plenty of forehands and he was taking them on the rise, hitting winners, he was taking them and moving me and getting me -- forcing me to hit backhands or forehands out of position. That's just too good if someone can do that against me. So he did that and luckily he wasn't able to keep it up in the second and third sets.

JAMES BLAKE: He's streaky but he is still so solid in his defense. I saw him play a match in L.A., very similar match where he just played a flawless first set and then a couple of errors here and there in the second and gave him a chance to get back into it. He did the same thing. Kept putting pressure on him. I try not to get too down after the first set when that happened because if someone can keep that up, you can't hang your head even the crowd would know I gave my best but he just played unbelievable for that first set. I just looked for a little chink in the armor and then take advantage of that and keep pushing.

JAMES BLAKE: Probably that first break in the seconds set. I think he doublefaulted on the breakpoint. I think -- and for me that was that little chink in the armor. Okay, he's going for -- he goes for a pretty big second serve a lot of times, but I try to take that as a positive. If he doesn't feel he is confident in his groundstrokes he wants to end the point with just that serve and then he missed it on breakpoint. I thought okay, maybe he doesn't want this to be a long match. He wants to kind of keep steam rolling me, I can't make it easy for him. Once I got that break I said, all right, I need to take care of my serve because he does return so well. I was able to do that and from then on I had a lot of confidence and having the crowd behind you helps that.

JAMES BLAKE: That was pretty funny. I have never seen anything like that where the kid has to go behind the fence to get it. It gets a little tough out there to control your emotions sometimes. And he's been known to throw a racket here or there but he's never been known to do anything disrespectful to the other players to his other competitors. I actually like seeing it. I like seeing emotion on the court because that's who he is, he's an emotional person, I never mind those outbursts as long as it doesn't endanger anyone. That's just part of the game. I am glad they didn't give him a warning or a fine or anything because it is just I mean, he had a pretty easy volley that he missed and you get angry after that, if you are the type of person that's going to let that out then let it out.

JAMES BLAKE: Definitely, especially the way he returns he had some chances on me that last game before that to break and he actually finally gave me a free point on one of those serves which was very, very welcomed by me. But as soon as he missed the first serve, I said, I am going to step up and go after this. If I miss it, I miss it, but I am going to go after it and have no regrets about it and once you kind of make up your mind that early and you have that kind of clear mindedness about it, it's generally going to go in your favor and it did that time. And that was a great feeling to have that confidence because like I said, six months ago I never would have had that. I would have thought okay, I need to just put it back in the court, see if he's going to miss, get a little nervous, these guys are way too good to get nervous about one match or one point. I took it to him and this time it work.

JAMES BLAKE: Unbelievable. I can't get the smile off my face when I am out there playing. I think you guys saw the emotion I had when I did get that break in the third set. I knew I had the chance to win this match after such a tough first set to come back and win that match for this crowd I knew it would be exciting for them. It's exciting for me to beat a player like Tommy who, in my mind, is a top 10, Top-15 talent. It is a great feeling and being in front of my home crowd and I get to go home and sleep in my own bed tonight and hang out with my friends and get some breakfast with a couple buddies in the morning you really just can't beat it when you have that many friends around and you are doing a job that you love. I love every single thing about this job except the travel and being away from my friends and everything. If I can do this every week, I couldn't possibly be any happier, I don't think, around my friends and doing a job that I love, with a great crowd and in the States I mean, just I would never complain about anything, I don't think.

JAMES BLAKE: Not a whole lot. A little bit I talked to him earlier in the year but not a whole lot. I kind of draw a little inspiration from someone like this. Seeing what he went through with his parents, all of the Tour was very concerned about that. That's something I mean, no matter who you are, I mean, you have parents, you have people you love that you just don't ever want to see hurt, and his parents able to battle through that and I have seen them at quite a few tournaments, that's something that's really great to see every time I try to take a minute just to say hi to them and say good luck to tomorrow. I hope they are doing well and they are okay and they are really proud of him and everything. Because it makes a difference when I am at a tournament and people know my mom and they tell her that they hope she is proud of me and that kind of stuff. It does make a big difference to me to know that he has his family still and he appreciates them the way he does now. In terms of the injury, I heard doctors say that they thought he might not come back and might not be the same and his shoulder was about as bad as a shoulder can be and now he's coming back serving 130. To see that means, no matter what age, he's a couple of years older than me and came back just as good as new. Seeing that makes you realize that even if it takes a little while, you can get back. So I just -- I try to draw inspiration from that. It's kind of tough sometimes to talk to a colleague or a competitor that you are facing and give him a ton of advice and say okay, now this is what you need to do, but I am going to try to beat you in a couple of hours, so it's tough. It is a tough dynamic sometimes for someone that maybe you weren't as close to before. But I have definitely drawn a lot of inspiration from him.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I always set pretty much the same goals that's just to get better. This week I knew there would be a lot of pressure with the fans and everything and being so close to home but I didn't want to think about that. I think about getting better next week for the US Open and even at the US Open I am not going to focus on just that one tournament, I am going to think about getting better. Since I got to college I haven't set ranking goals or anything like that because I think they are at times a little bit out of your control. I could play Roger Federer five times in a row, I can get a little injured and feel like I am doing everything right and still not be ranked where I want to be, but I can also get great draws, get a couple of walkovers or something and get ranked higher than I really deserve when I haven't worked as hard as I probably should. I don't worry about the ranking. I worry about getting better. I feel like I am. I feel like right now I actually believe I am a better player than I was when I was ranked 22 or whatever I was in the world and I am just -- I am not worried about the ranking catching up. I am just worried about continuing to get better and it's exciting to me still.