US OPEN

August 31, 2003

James Blake

JAMES BLAKE: Well, tonight, you know, it's a night match. The crowd gets into it. I'm doing my best to get them involved, to have some fun, try to get myself pumped up. Those little outbursts that happen after I miss a big shot, I mean, there's so many important opportunities that you really need to take advantage of when you're playing such a great player, that any time I lost them, I was pretty disappointed. I really have no problem with any kind of like quick outburst, throwing a racquet, yelling a little bit. As long as I manage then to have 25 seconds, turn it around, refocus. I thought I did a pretty good job of that. I felt like I fought the whole time, even had a breakpoint there in that last game. He just played too good. He played big on the big points, which is what someone with that much confidence after winning Wimbledon is expected to do.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I'd need to serve a little better. But I think I was only broken, what, three times? Three times in three sets by someone playing that well, not too bad. I thought I could have returned a little better. I played a pretty good tiebreaker. The tiebreaker I think was pretty high-level tennis. I think I lost one point on my serve there. It wasn't like my serve was letting me down totally. It definitely wasn't as good as his. I never expect my serve to be as good as his - not quite yet. I don't think I served terrible. I did a pretty good job of saving breakpoints, I think. He is just a good player.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. It's getting a little frustrating. But, you know, I've had some tough draws. I need to work the rest of the year to get higher seeding so I don't have to get these tough draws. I am getting tired of coming to the US Open, playing great tennis and being known more for my losses than my wins. So I need to change that. I think I can. I'm not as worried about it because I've lost to, like you said, some great players. But it's too bad. Not even as much for me, because I have the confidence in myself to do it. It's just that I think for the fans, I'd love to be around in the second week for them - maybe even the second weekend. You know, maybe not this year, but -- well, definitely not this year. But hopefully next year and time to come.

JAMES BLAKE: Very. I never played him before. His serve is very effective with how much he changes it up. The range of speeds in his first serve I think go from the mid 80s to the high 120s. He just hits his spots really well. Even when you feel like you have looks at it, he changes it up so much that it's pretty difficult to return. So I think he's a guy that makes you play a little worse than you think you are, or a little worse than you should, just because he, you know, he places it so well. I mean, he even hits big second serves. He mixes up his second serve better than anyone I think I've played. I was never fortunate enough to play Pete Sampras so I can't compare those two. But his second serve is the best that I've played against.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it's great to see people having a great time. I love that. They definitely help me. They helped me in the first two matches. It's great. It's great to see people enjoying tennis. Maybe people can stop writing that tennis is dying and stop saying that. But it looks like they're having a good time. So what can I say? I love that. That's what makes New York, New York.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, he's actually -- he does a great job when he's moving. I feel like I'm one of the pretty elite movers on tour. But what he does when he gets to the ball, he's got so much strength and so much racquet control, he can still place the ball where he wants to. That's something I need to work on. Need to get a little stronger maybe. Learn how to be a little more intelligent with where I'm placing the ball and maybe not go for so much. So many times he made me hit just two or three more balls. And even if he didn't win all the points, he made me hit those and made me think about it, then made me go for a little more. I need to maybe work on that, how well he played defense there. Then his demeanor is also one of the best on the court. He's very relaxed and very, you know, seems very emotionless until it gets to the end of the match, then he lets it all out at that point, as you saw at Wimbledon. He's got an even head. I think that's great. I also, you know, I love watching his backhand. I love watching him play. Before I ever played him, I loved watching him play. His backhand is so smooth. Obviously, mine isn't quite that smooth. I need to work on that. I can learn plenty from him.

JAMES BLAKE: "I hope I keep winning them." I just realized he was having so many chances. Sometimes that can work to the -- to my advantage, I felt like. You know, if he kept thinking about how many chances he blew and then it gets really close and he probably played a better set than me but it's still so close, you know, that can eat away at someone. But, like I said, he's got one of the best demeanors on the court. He didn't show it at all. He kept playing his game. I think he's also a pretty intelligent player when he gets those breakpoints, when he gets opportunities. I feel like he takes a little off. He makes me play. I had to play some pretty good points on a lot of those. I think a lot of guys wouldn't have done that. Obviously, I didn't do quite a good enough job of it since I'm sitting here a loser. He does a great job of that. He wanted to see if I could beat him the whole time. Obviously, I couldn't. He did a good job.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, that was pretty frustrating. My serve, my toss was a little erratic but I still felt like I was serving okay and mixing up my second serves a little. That was something I had in the game plan early on, talked to my coach about that. I was gonna try to mix up some second serves. Just didn't feel that comfortable on those last two. You know, showed. I missed them. Just barely missed them. That's what the pressure of someone putting, you know, getting so many breakpoints will do to you.

JAMES BLAKE: Definitely. I think it should be -- I mean, they use technology to help the let cord situation. Might as well use technology to just have a little monitor on the chair. It takes the same amount of time as checking a ball mark on clay. You just check. You eliminate some of the human error in it. Maybe if they don't want to slow the game down too much, you have three a set, three a match or whatever. And they just check it and see. It seems pretty simple to me. I don't know what the cost would be, how much it would be, but I think it's worth it. Would be fun for the fans. I remember, I don't know if it was last year or the year before, last year when I was playing Hewitt I hit one and they showed a replay up on the big screen. It was obviously in. They missed the call. I haven't seen them show too many replays since then of those kind of close calls. It just seems like it would make sense. I don't understand why they wouldn't use it.

JAMES BLAKE: No. I actually asked the umpire if they showed it on the screen. I turned around, looked down, went to get another ball. I heard the whole crowd saying "Ooh." I looked over at Roger, and he was laughing. I asked Wayne in the chair just, "If you don't mind, check that one after the match." He made a good argument. He said he couldn't see it. It obviously wasn't a clear enough mistake on the far sideline for him to overrule. I just told him, "I thought you made a mistake."

JAMES BLAKE: No. They've never asked. I've never had a problem with it. I mean, I realize how big Arthur Ashe stadium is. Might be better for those fans sitting way up near the top to at least see that. Otherwise, it would probably be a little difficult for them. I never had a problem with it. We should be professional enough to not look up at it at any kind of important times. I mean, sometimes your mind wanders, you need to look at something, you look at the stats while you're sitting on the changeover, maybe even try to change something about it. It's never been a problem for me.