PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 13, 2003

James Blake

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I think so. Just given the history, he's beaten me three times before. I really respect his game a lot. He's got a huge forehand, plays relatively similar to me. You know, he tries to create opportunities with that forehand. I'm amazed how well he moves as well. He gets a ton of balls, makes you hit another ball, has a big first serve. For me it's a tough match-up. To get that win finally, especially being down a set and a break, really having to fight for it, and play some of my best tennis, it's probably my best win of the year.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I tried to just stay it in mentally. I got a couple bad breaks in the first set, I had some set points. Seems like all our matches have been close. Those big points have gone his way. Could be because he's a solid veteran that knows how to play those big points. I was a little frustrated by that, thinking, "Maybe I just can't beat this guy. Maybe he's going to come up big on me every time." It was too close at 3-2 in the second set for me to just give up and say, "He's too good today." I knew I could stay in it. If he beats me, he beats me. I'm going to stick with my game plan, see what happens, see if I could raise my level. Luckily I was able to a little bit. He made some mistakes in that 3-2 game that just gave me confidence to go for my shots, then I just went after him.

JAMES BLAKE: Just a little bit of confidence. Definitely a year ago if I was down a set and a break, I would have gone for some stupid shots, trying to go for too much, maybe totally changed my game plan. Didn't want to do that. Now I feel comfortable even going forehand to forehand with the biggest forehand in the game in Carlos, I believe. You know, I might not have had the confidence to do that a year ago, even three or four months ago. I feel like I've put in the hard work enough so that I got to just test it against these guys and see how good I am. You know, if I can't beat these guys, if I'm stuck at 20 something in the world, I'll live with that. But I know I'm doing my best. I'm pretty comfortable with that. Hopefully I can keep moving up.

JAMES BLAKE: Possibly I guess if I had to pick one, I would have to go back to Cincinnati about a year and a half ago, whenever that was, when I beat Clement, beat Boutter, then lost to Patrick Rafter in a tight match. He gave me the confidence saying he played well that day. And it was a close match. I had I think a couple of set points in the first set. He was at that time, you know, Top 10 in the world. For me to play a guy like that and him to say he played well, you know, "You just didn't believe that you could beat me," that gave me the confidence to say, "Maybe I can do this. Maybe I can play with the best players in the world." I don't want to single it out to one specific tournament. I also made the semis in Newport a couple weeks before that. A couple weeks later I played the big match with Lleyton Hewitt that a lot of people remember me as my breakthrough kind of. That just gave me the confidence to keep going with that. I just got rolling. It's been a fun ride since then.

JAMES BLAKE: I did actually. I sent him an e-mail. I said, "Just send me some good beat Carlos Moya vibes because I don't have them yet." He just told me his game plan. He just kind of say, "You got nothing to lose. The way I did it, I took rips at his second serve, got in and put pressure on him." That was what I was pretty proud of that I did today as opposed to the other times. I think I was a little more tentative on the second serve and just content getting the ball back and making him play. He's too good of a player to let you just push it back and not take advantage of that. So when I did take advantage of that, I think it put a little more pressure on his first serve as well. He started missing that a little more, too. I'm glad Mardy sent me those beat Carlos Moya vibes.

JAMES BLAKE: I actually made the semis there two years ago, I made the finals there last year. I like to think I can play pretty well on grass. I feel like I got a pretty good serve-and-volley game, I'm a little more comfortable out there I feel than a lot a lot of guys in the top hundred. I definitely like being there at Wimbledon. I feel like I have a pretty good fan base since now they know I am half English. I have a pretty decent crowd to support me. It's a lot of fun over there. My family's always over there with me. I love playing over there. I just ran into a guy that's got a lot of experience there last year and was serving great. But I think I can have some success there.

JAMES BLAKE: I don't know. I think, you know, they're two of the best baseliners in the world, especially Lleyton, who I think grass might be his best surface, the way he's played there, the way I've seen him play at Queen's. It's unbelievable how hard it is. I haven't played him on grass, but it just looks like it's so tough to beat him. His returns are unbelievable. Agassi set that precedent by having a baseliner win Wimbledon. I don't think it changed anything. I think the serve-and-volleyers still have a very good chance. You know, Krajicek, Philippoussis, Ivanisevic. Hewitt is No. 1 in the world. He's shown why he's such a great athlete and can win on all surfaces. I think Wimbledon, he might have a few more of those in his closet before he's done.

JAMES BLAKE: I think it's looking pretty good. And hopefully we can get wins over, what is it, Grosjean and Rochus by the end of the day, as well. You know, I've said this for a while, that we've got a lot of talent coming up. And I think these guys are getting better and better. Hopefully I'm getting better and better. And we even have two of our top players not even here with Taylor Dent and Mardy Fish. It's a great sign for us. Even though we were out of the Davis Cup this year, we're going to just try to get up to the World Group with the relegation and I think we're going to have a lot of choices. Patrick will have a lot of choices next we're with all these guys playing solid tennis. It's going to be fun. We're all good friends and we're all doing this together.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. I mean, that's the media's job, though. They got to throw out those questions. For a while it looked like Sampras and Agassi were kind of fading. They proved everyone wrong with that, proved that you can still be at the top of your game at 30, 31, 32 years old. It's great to see. But, you know, all these questions about where is the next Agassi and Sampras to me seem silly. To replace those guys is darn near impossible. You know, I know Justin Gimelstob, Paul Goldstein, those guys heard it, Jan-Michael Gambill for a while. Sampras and Agassi are still around, the great champions that they are. Now I feel like we got a great group coming up. Might have been under the microscope a little bit more just because of Sampras and Agassi getting a little bit older. Andy did a phenomenal job, because before him it was a lot of guys who were kind of on the verge, might do well, might not, and Andy just exploded onto the scene and made it easy for everyone else. It took that pressure off, because everybody just put that on his shoulders, said he's going to be the next big gun. And he took it and handled it unbelievably for someone of his age, and that made it easier for all of us. We didn't have to hear it all the time because we could just say, "Look at Andy, Andy's doing great." American tennis will be just fine. Now with him taking that pressure off of us, we've all done much, much better.

JAMES BLAKE: Maybe, but that was also something that made me feel good about this year, is that I maybe hadn't hit my stride and I've still done the best I ever had at a Grand Slam. I won the Hopman Cup, and I made the semis in San Jose, losing to Agassi when he's playing unbelievable tennis. Now to see that those are the expectations set for me makes me feel really good that people expect me to do even better. I'm really happy to see that. It means people have a lot of respect for my game. And it makes me feel like I can possibly do some great things in the sport. To get wins here, like you said, possibly hit my stride, I know I can play at that top level. It's fun.

JAMES BLAKE: Sure. He's a great player that has a whole lot of talent. A lot of people early on pegged him as just a clay courter. He proved us all wrong by winning, I believe, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, big hard court tournaments. He can play, in my opinion, on all surfaces. He made the quarters at Wimbledon, I think. So he's a great player that now looks to be fully recovered from the surgery. That's a dangerous proposition, because he can play lights out, as I think Rafter can attest to a couple years ago in Cincinnati. He can play unbelievable. But I'm going to try to match up with him and see what happens. I've never played him before. I haven't done my homework quite yet on the scouting report. But I'll talk to all the other Americans that have played him, all the coaches that know him well. We'll see how it goes. It should be fun.

JAMES BLAKE: It's so helpful. I feel like it's similar to some of the other countries. It looks like the guys from France, they hang out together. They're all playing cards. They're out to dinner together. You know, they've always overachieved in Davis Cup. You see that. That's something that Patrick and Jim talked to us about. We have that, you know, feeling. I mean, I go out to dinner with Mardy, Taylor, Robby all the time on the road, Andy, Brian. We have a great time together, all of us. We're cheering for each other. I want to see Andy do well tonight. I want to see Robby do well. We're excited for that. I think that makes a big difference because it gives us people to cheer for. Just makes it seem a little less lonely out here when you have friends that are doing well. If you have a bad week, but they have a good week, you take something out of it. You keep your confidence high and you just have someone to cheer for and someone to hang out with on the road. It makes a big difference.

JAMES BLAKE: That's true.

JAMES BLAKE: We get together on the road. We're also -- maybe it's me being selfish, we're trying to recruit all the guys to come down to Saddle Brook. I have Mardy Fish, Jeff Morrison training there. My brother trained there. Taylor Dent I believe is looking for a house. He's going to come train there, I believe we're still working on Robby. He's a little tougher, but I think we can break him down. When we're on the road, we hang out together. When we're back home relaxing, we get to go play golf at Saddle Brook and work hard on the court.

JAMES BLAKE: They might have a couple of IDs from people that are a little older. We don't tell the police about that. No, no, we have a good time. We just get to make fun of them any time we do go out and they get carded at a restaurant or whatever. We have a good time giving them a little bit of crap about it.

JAMES BLAKE: It might. I know they're also pretty good friends. They practiced together in Boca, I think. I'm sure they know each other's games very well. Andy I know when he loses a close match, he wants to turn that around and show you that that was a fluke. I have a feeling tonight he'll have some fireworks. You might want to watch the speed gun tonight. I'm sure he'll be jacked up probably pretty early. I got a lot of respect for Sebastien's game. He took it to me twice over there at Roland Garros. He's a tough competitor. It's going to be a fun match and I think Andy's going to go right after him.