WIMBLEDON

June 24, 2002

James Blake

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it's all new to me. This is something that's brand-new. It's good to get a win under my belt, kind of any way you can. It's unfortunate to get it that way, but I felt like I was playing well. I hadn't been at Queen's, up until now. So it feels good to get my feet under me. I had a problem with my ankle, now it feels great, so everything is looking up.

JAMES BLAKE: You know, I don't ever like to make excuses, so I won't blame it on that. Just -- I don't feel like I had a bad loss. I lost to Spadea, who is placed well, and I lost to Grosjean, who is a great player. I don't feel like I need to make any excuses.

JAMES BLAKE: Definitely a great player. Any time you're coming up against a former champion, you got to be ready for a tough match. Kind of have nothing to lose, although I'm the one that's seeded and he's not. I definitely feel like he's someone that is so dangerous, that he can, you know, scare just about anyone in the draw. I'm going to kind of go out there, just like today, kind of learn as I go. This is all brand-new, being in the second round of Wimbledon. Obviously, it's a first for me. I'm going to go out there with no pressure and see what happens. Can't hang my head if I lose to a great player like that. I'll just be, you know, proud of myself if I can go out there and play my best and get a win.

JAMES BLAKE: Get my coach to stand on top of the net and serve at me (smiling). No, I've seen -- unfortunately, there's a lot of big servers out there today. I've gotten used to a few of them. Just got to sometimes take your guesses, take your chances. It makes it so you really have to take advantage of any opportunity you get - at a second serve, or if he double-faults once or twice, you get a breakpoint, you have to concentrate hard on those points and try to make him play, take a little bit of pressure off your serve. It's tough, but that's what makes him a great player. I'll try to counteract it any way you can.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, she was.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I think she was. She seemed pretty happy (laughter). I can't speak for exactly what she was feeling. I really hope she was proud of the way I was playing out there and proud of the way I was acting. Felt good for me to have both my parents over here watching me. It's always great to have them in the stands. It's always good to get a win for them, too. I hope they're having fun. Really seems like they're having a good time here.

JAMES BLAKE: Her whole family. But, unfortunately, some of them have passed on and some of them have moved to America, not really a huge contingent over here. I'm hoping to give some people a reason to bring out a Union Jack if they feel like it.

JAMES BLAKE: I didn't know that beforehand. But then I think around 4-1 in the second set, he called the trainer. He just said he was going to keep playing. The umpire told me he wasn't feeling well. I was under the impression he wasn't extremely comfortable on the grass. He hadn't played any warm-up tournaments. I figured he was maybe just getting used to the grass. When the trainer came out, made that decision, or he made the decision, I was a little surprised. But then afterwards, the trainer told me he had actually been feeling sick for the last few days, that he had kind of expected it. But I didn't know anything about it. I was pretty surprised.

JAMES BLAKE: It's great. It's legendary. Not much else that needs to be said about it. It's something that can earn your respect. Can't really respect an inanimate object, but I guess this is one that you can -- Centre Court, Wimbledon, something like that, it's very impressive. It's what every kid I think in America or at least every kid that plays , if they get up early in the morning -- I think the coverage is usually on at about 7 a.m. back there. It's the one time of year you don't mind getting up at 6:30 in the morning. You get up, you watch the tennis, then you get excited to go out and play some tennis. Even for Americans who are pretty far away, it's still the big one, still something that seems so far away when you're over there, seems like a dream land to be at the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon. Now to be here, try to make everything seem just like another match, it's tough to do. But that's part of the learning process. I feel like I'm doing a good job of keeping my emotions in check and just making it like it's just another match.

JAMES BLAKE: I've been here to play doubles, so that made it a little easier for me. Like I said, the haloed grounds. It's kind of the -- the field of dreams for tennis players. It's something that you've respected all your life and something that you know has so much tradition behind it. It's something that's going to be around a hundred years from now. When I'm done playing tennis, it's going to be here, and it's still going to be the same. They make little changes here and there, but the tradition behind Wimbledon is always going to be the same.

JAMES BLAKE: I wouldn't say I'm an accomplished player on grass yet. I'm trying to get there. I hope over my career I can have a lot of success here. I feel like I definitely have the possibility, like you said. I mean, I have relatively short strokes I think on my forehand. I can try to use my athleticism to get into net. My serve I wouldn't say is a huge weapon, but it's adequate enough to get some free points, get into net behind it. That's really I think the only preparation you can do, is just get used to the footwork. I think at Queen's I didn't necessarily -- I wasn't ready for it since I didn't have as much preparation time for that, getting straight off the clay. Now that I feel like I've gotten used to the grass, I feel like I'm moving a lot better. Footwork is key on any surface. If you get your feet behind the ball, it's just so much more effective than when you're a little bit off balance. That makes a big difference.

JAMES BLAKE: Actually probably when I first really started getting into it, it was the year Krajicek won it actually. Watching him beat Sampras, I mean, I actually hadn't followed -- I followed tennis, but I hadn't paid a lot of attention to it before then. So it was just assumed in my head, you know, Sampras had won it three years in a row, he's going to win it again, a foregone conclusion. To watch Krajicek play unbelievable and take him out, then go through the finals against Mal Washington, who I definitely looked up to. That semifinal, I mean, just that whole year, that semifinal with Mal and Todd, I kind of looked up to both of them. Todd just for, you know, random reason that he looks a little like my half brother, so our whole family kind of cheered for him. He seemed like a nice guy, too. Mal, for obvious reasons, I looked up to him. Watching that whole match was a little disheartening on Todd's part, but it was good to see Mal in the finals, the first African American since Arthur Ashe. That was something that was great. Then it was a final that Richard just played too good. He deserved to win it that year. That's the first year that really got me excited about Wimbledon.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I've told Todd that he definitely looked like my half brother. I think he's met him since then. I don't know if he agrees. Actually they might not look as much alike any more. More in Todd's younger days. But, no, I told him that. I think my mom agreed back then, too.

JAMES BLAKE: No, I would never say anything like that about Todd (smiling).

JAMES BLAKE: Tom and Betty.

JAMES BLAKE: It would be thrilling for me. Like I said, I'm trying to make this like every match is just another match. It will just be another not so much obstacle but another learning experience for me to get through and for me to feel good about myself if I can get out there on Centre Court or Court No. 1 and just play the way I play best, which is make it like it's just another match. That's something I look forward to. I can't really make a schedule. I'm not going to put in any requests or do anything like that. It's up to them, whatever they feel like the fans want to watch, I'm happy with.

JAMES BLAKE: I don't know. I think seeding these days is always pretty tough because the men's game is so deep that anyone can beat anyone. Last year a guy like me being probably around a hundred in the world at that time playing the best player in the world, Lleyton Hewitt, taking him to five sets - that can happen at any time - when I'd like to think I'm the only guy that can do that, but unfortunately there's a lot of guys that can play that well on any given day. It's tough to expect to uphold or do better than your seed. The draw I got, it's pretty tough to play Richard Krajicek, who is not seeded, when he's won the title before, and he can obviously have confidence on these kind of courts. It's tough to expect to hold your seed, but I don't really pay that much attention to the seeds just for that reason.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, being seeded is still totally new to me. I don't really know what to expect. Since this is my first Wimbledon, I don't know it any other way. I definitely still feel like that member's locker room is for the top 16 seeds and the guys who won it before. I haven't been in there this year. I have been in there, though, because the first time I was here, actually just for doubles, I didn't realize there were two different locker rooms. That's the one I wandered into and realized there was Pete and Andre and Krajicek. I think it was the year Todd Martin was seeded two years ago. I saw his coach. I said, "Am I supposed to be in here?" He said, "No." All right, I'll pretend I didn't see it and walk upstairs to where I belonged. That just happened to be where all my friends are, so I'm most of the time up on the top of the stairs anyway.