US OPEN

September 6, 2001

James Blake

JAMES BLAKE: During the match (with Hewitt), I wasn't really thinking about it, but I thought about it in other matches. And I think one of the reasons I played so well, I was putting pressure like that on myself. I was just going out there and playing the match. Afterwards, when Patrick came up to me, and said, "I don't know if I should ask you this as a reporter or as the Davis Cup captain," that made me feel pretty good.

JAMES BLAKE: A couple days ago, Patrick let me know that I'd be on the team; basically it will be between me and Todd Martin to see who would play the second singles, that I'd be part of the team no matter what. I've been a practice partner twice before. I'm 0-2, and I don't care how it happens, I hope we win this time.

JAMES BLAKE: Absolutely. It's an honor to be on the Davis Cup team any time you're on it. Any time you're on the Davis Cup team, practice partner or whatever, it's an honor. An American Davis Cup team is always going to have some very impressive people on it. There's a tradition of having great players on the team like the Jim Couriers, John McEnroes, going all the way back. It's great to be part of that. I'm going to be wearing the same USA warm-ups that those guys were wearing. And to represent your country, it's amazing.

JAMES BLAKE: I've gotten to see great Davis Cup players and how they practice, how they train for a big match. You see these guys at tournaments, and you see how they get ready for tournament matches, but that's a little different because it's so close to match time. But in a Davis Cup situation, you see how they train a week in advance. It's been very helpful to see how hard these guys work and the effort they put in. In Boston, I was there when Todd Martin, Jim Courier, and Pete Sampras were all there. Seeing how those guys got ready really helped my training. If I play singles, I'll try to play as well as I can.

JAMES BLAKE: I'm not really sure. That's up to Patrick. He's been around a lot longer than I have. I'm just going to go there, practice as hard as I can and be prepared to play singles and get the other guys ready to play singles. And whatever happens, whatever situation arises, I want to be ready. I'm going to prepare as if I'm going to play singles, and if I don't, there's no sense of disappointment.

JAMES BLAKE: It helped me get some confidence. I've been learning a lot this summer. I've been playing a lot of matches. I've been trying to learn from the wins and learn from the losses. I've gained a lot of confidence from my wins, but there's a couple of losses that I've also gained confidence from. I lost to Patrick Rafter. I played pretty well. I had some chances there to do well. I feel like losing two matches to two guys that are at the top level of tennis, to be close to them, it's just a matter of a few points here or there, and have the confidence to go for your shots in those points, that gives me confidence. Going for those shots at that point, eventually they're going to fall. That gives me confidence I can beat guys like that - or at least play with them. It's just a matter of keep working hard. I still feel like I'm improving every time I go out on the court. I'm having a good time. I'm having fun. The fact that I lost makes me want to go home and work even harder.

JAMES BLAKE: I'm going to speak my mind, as I always have. And I've moved past it. I know it's going to come up. That's the job of the media. I just don't feel like I have to dwell on it. I've moved past it. Both of us have moved past it. I try not to worry about it. It's over with and I've moved on.

JAMES BLAKE: The part of the game that I've worked on the most is my backhand and my backhand return. I believe a year ago it was a weakness that could be picked on, and guys knew that coming in probably. They attacked that all day. That was the game plan. Now I feel like I can't hurt them as much as I can with my forehand, but I can keep it consistent and work the points enough to get the ball around to my forehand, and then try to attack from there. It seems that the better my backhand gets, the further I go up the rankings.