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March 25, 2005

James Blake

JAMES BLAKE: A lot of ups and downs. You know, felt great. Can't be too disheartened because I played a good match. He came up with an unbelievable backhand pass on one of the matchpoints. I had a ton of chances in the second set for breakpoints, but a lot of them he hit big first serves. Wish I had some of those back to maybe guess on, but he played really well. That's why he's 5 in the world. I'm feeling really good about the consistency of my game now. I feel back to where I know I'm going to play a pretty high level in every tournament at this point. But it would really help to string a few wins together to prove that. I mean, I don't know what my ranking is right now, but I need to get it back up so I'm not in these positions in the first rounds, and I can maybe get a couple of easier draws. But he played great. I wish I could have won it. I had chances. What else can you ask for?

JAMES BLAKE: I was thinking, "Wow, my leg hurts." Because I had already started to cramp at that point and so I don't know if it was a dive or a fall, because I couldn't have -- whether I made it or not, I don't know if I would have been able to get up. So I cramped.

JAMES BLAKE: My quad cramped pretty badly, just locked up. So there was no -- nothing I could really do. I just -- I actually hit a pretty good shot before that. I thought I kept the ball low enough and made him hit a tough volley. He hit a great shot, and that's what great players do and, you know, on matchpoints or breakpoints or big points like that. He was just maybe a little bit more match ready than I was, I guess. I haven't played a ton in the last year, and he has. He's won a lot of these matches. Having that kind of confidence at the end of a match is big. You know, that could account for a point or two, and he only won by a point or two today.

JAMES BLAKE: I've had some other pretty strange ones, too. I've had a cramping issue. When I first started I actually had -- when I first started on tour, I had a couple cramping issues. So I'm not sure. Have a memory of one time of a player -- I didn't shake a player's hand, and that was it. So this one, this one ranks up there when I'm on the ground. Yeah, at least -- I mean, I couldn't lose to a nicer guy. He came over, was offering his help to take me off the court and to wait for me. He really is a great champion and a great guy. So I wish I could have gotten up to tell him congratulations more sincerely, but I was, you know -- I told him since then, so it's all right.

JAMES BLAKE: I never hurt my ankle, my ankle feels fine. I did tell the trainer to be ready because I started to feel the twinges coming on, like I was starting to cramp. I told him to be ready. At that point I'm going all-out for every shot no matter what. No matter how much it hurts, I'm going to keep trying. So if anything like that happened, I told him, "Make sure to be ready." That was about it. Unfortunately, it did happen and, unfortunately, I didn't come out on top.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah.

JAMES BLAKE: I definitely played it a little more conservatively. That first one, he hit an unbelievable backhand passing shot, which all I could say is too good. He played a good point. Then he aced me. Third one, I definitely pushed the return, but I wasn't as upset about that as after that, I didn't take it to him. He was serving so well, to get the return in the court was okay for me at that point. But then the next two shots I really just pushed, and I would have liked to have gone for a little more on those. But, you know, he hits that forehand, he hits it so heavy that it's not always easy to put the ball where you want to.

JAMES BLAKE: Uh-hmm.

JAMES BLAKE: No, I mean, at that point it was one point. I'm sure I played some other bad points throughout the match. I played a great one on the first matchpoint and I did keep moving forward. And he aced me on another one. And, unfortunately, I played one bad point where he had to make -- still had to make three pretty good forehands, and, you know, I don't know exactly why it was, maybe it was the pressure of matchpoint, the pressure of being on Stadium Court, but I really didn't feel like -- I can't feel like I'm going to go home, beat myself up too much over one point. I put myself in a position to get those, those matchpoints, and he came up big when he needed to. If I'm going to anguish over one point all the time, I mean, I'm sure -- I had other breakpoints in there. But he played well on all of them.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I definitely feel like my game is getting back to there. I think I can get there, but it's going to be frustrating and it's going to take some time because my ranking is so low now thanks to not playing all last year that I might even have to drop down to challengers. But I think the more matches I play like this, the more I'm going to win of them. You know, to know that I can play with a Top 5 player and, you know, last week in Indian Wells I think I beat a Top 20 player, I've beaten a few other guys ranked around 50, so I don't feel like I'm ranked 150 in the world or whatever I am. I definitely feel like I'm playing a level that's up there - maybe in the Top 20; I can't say for sure because the highest I ever made it I think was 20. I feel like I'm playing better than I was then, but I just want to make sure it's consistent and I can keep doing it. It's a compliment coming from him because he's been in the Top 20 for many years and knows what it takes. He also has a game very similar to mine. If he says I'm going to be in the Top 20, I take that as a pretty big compliment, and hopefully I can live up to his prediction.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, that's I think 100% now. Doctors really have a tough time telling when it's 100% healed because I'm not sure if all the muscles right around my eye and all the muscles on the left side of my face are 100%. But I feel good. I don't have dizzy spells. I don't have blurred vision or anything on the court anymore. I don't have anything like that. I feel okay. I never know if, you know, a night match is going to change, you know -- something's going on in my eye. But I feel great right now. I'm so happy just to be healthy. Every match like this, you know, last year I would have gone home and probably broken a few racquets. Now I know, you know, I get to go home - although I'm a little tight, banged up from cramping and everything - but I'm going to go home and I'm going to be healthy tomorrow hopefully, and I can't complain too much because I played a great match. I had some fun. I wish I had won. I'm going to learn from this. I think a different perspective has helped me, and I think it will help me to possibly get to the Top 20 and maybe even further.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. I mean, there are other causes for it, but in my case it was definitely stress-related.

JAMES BLAKE: Yes.

JAMES BLAKE: (Laughing.) With the size of his house, that would be a pretty big wagon, I think. We'll see. He'll be down the street from me. Yeah, that's an unbelievable house. Mine is definitely nothing like that.