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DAVIS CUP QUARTERFINALSApril 9, 2006James BlakeDean GoldfineCHILE vs. USA , RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Questions for Dean or James. Q. Any point the weekend did you think if you lost you might be a scapegoat here? DEAN GOLDFINE: No. I mean, these guys are too classy to do that. Obviously, it's important, you know, the position of the captain, the things that you need to do out there. I've said it all before, I mean, bottom line is the players are the ones that go out there and play. I feel like sometimes with coaches that we sometimes get maybe too much of the credit in all sports. Sometimes the coaches get too much of the credit. Sometimes they get too much of the blame. Bottom line is, these guys go out there and they're the ones that have to execute their game plans, do what they need to do to win. JAMES BLAKE: If you were wondering, that's what makes the best coach es in the world, the ones that say that. Q. Dean, does this make you 1-0 as captain? DEAN GOLDFINE: There you go, 1-0. That's why I'm quitting while I'm ahead. Perfect record. Q. Talk about Andy's game. This is one of his most complete efforts as a member of the Davis Cup team. What carried him through today against González? DEAN GOLDFINE: I think he basically stayed the course. He had a game plan going out there. It was to be aggressive, to put pressure on Ferdinando whenever he had the chance to do that. I don't think Andy played a bad first set. Ferdinando, that one game he broke him, ripped a couple of huge returns, just played too good. I told Andy, "Hey, just stay the course, just keep doing the things you've been doing out there, you'll be fine." He made a couple of minor adjustments with some things and it paid off for him. Q. James, after playing Fernando on Friday four hours, do you feel you played a role today in Andy's win? JAMES BLAKE: No. I mean, I'm not -- I'm not going to take any credit for that. Andy beat him. He played great. That's why I'm happy. Even though individually I didn't have the best weekend, I consider this week 100% total and complete success because we won as a team. That's why we picked grass. It probably isn't my most comfortable surface, but it's the best for the team. It worked out to our advantage, we won. That's all I care about. I don't care if I played for eight hours and took Fernando's legs out or if I lost him 0-0-0. Andy's effort was great today. The team effort for the whole week of practice was great. We got a win and we're moving on. I can't wait to play in Russia. Q. Watching from the stands, did you see anything from Fernando physically, maybe he was tired as the match went on? JAMES BLAKE: No. I mean, he was still serving great. I know I had saw somewhere that his shoulder might have been tight, but he was serving great. I didn't see that as a problem. He was still going after his shots. He was still trying very hard in that fourth set. He was getting pretty excited when it was 30-All, down 5-2. I don't think his legs would have been a problem. He's used to playing long five-setters on clay. You maybe use a little different muscles on grass, but the points are shorter. Looks like he was ready to go, especially with the adrenaline of a Davis Cup match. Q. Dean, you were pretty candid about being unhappy with some of the antics on the sideline the last couple days. How about today? Seemed to reach another level again. DEAN GOLDFINE: Yeah, but, you know, again, this is Davis Cup. You know, Hans is just out there trying to maybe gain a little advantage if he can for his team, obviously support the guys on his team. I mean, even if maybe he feels a ball was out, but his player thinks it was in, he needs to support his player. That's one of the jobs of the captain. You need to be a hundred percent in your player's corner. Yeah, I mean, it got a little interesting out there, obviously. I was just trying to obviously do the same thing, just make sure that I had my players' backs, you know. After the third set, when Andy sat down, just said, "Hey, there's a chance here that they're going to bring out all the stops here in this fourth set. Just stay calm. I'll stay calm. Focus on your tennis." Andy did a great job of that. Q. Dean, the team has Russia next. The team has won away ties. Hasn't beat an elite team like Russia away. Is this team at a point where it can? JAMES BLAKE: Yes. DEAN GOLDFINE: I was going to say, without a doubt. I think we gained a lot of experience a couple of years ago in Spain. I think that's going to help us a lot. Obviously, those conditions there were just, I mean, incredibly stacked against us from just the standpoint of the crowd, 27,000 people. The courts, playing the Spaniards who arguably are the best clay-courters in the world. I don't necessarily thing if we do play on clay that that is really their best surface. It's definitely, in my opinion, not Marat's best surface. Maybe some of the other guys, it might be. Even, guys like Youzhny, Tursunov, all those guys, in my opinion, play better on a faster surface. If they go ahead and throw the match on clay, I don't think that's necessarily benefitting them. Q. James, can you follow up? Do you think you guys matured enough to the point, as a team, where you're all sort of mid 20s players, that you'll go over there with the belief that you can get it done on any surface they put out there? JAMES BLAKE: Definitely. We're ready to play kind of any country in the world right now. We have so much fun together. We have I think a lot of talent on this team, as well. We just feel like we're ready to win any tie. We have confidence if someone loses the first match, like we did this tie and La Jolla, the other guy is going to pick us up. The Bryans, we have supreme confidence in them. We feel like we go into a tie up one-nothing basically with the Bryans. I mean, you saw that just in the guys not even wanting to put their top players against them this weekend. That's such an advantage we have because Andy and I get to rest and we feel like we don't even need to get nervous on Saturday. Then come Sunday, I feel great. If Andy is ever in the position to clinch, I feel unbelievably confident he's going to. He's never lost in that situation. Even if he were to, I feel great about my chances in a fifth match. I have played some pretty big matches in the past, especially the past year, I'm ready to step up to that challenge. On clay I've had some success, I feel like can I play well on that. Especially I'm looking forward to this clay court season to see how well I can play now that I'm back to playing the level of tennis I've gotten to at this point. I want to see how well can I do on clay. After this season, I'm sure I'll learn plenty in Rome, Hamburg, Houston, the French Open. I'll hopefully put what I learned to good use in Russia. I'm sure Andy is going to do the same. Q. Dean, your appointment was announced shortly before this tie. Was it just for this tie? Are you going to be sticking around? DEAN GOLDFINE: My appointment? Well, obviously Patrick is back as the captain. I hope that I will continue to be the assistant coach for the team. I haven't really talked about it. We'll just have to kind of see what Patrick and the guys think is the best thing for the team. If they feel I'm an asset to the team, I'll be there. If not, I'll be at home rooting for them. Q. James, there was a time when getting Andre or Pete to play Davis Cup was like pulling teeth. It seems like you guys are always ready to go. Are we kind of entering a new era as far as Davis Cup is concerned in the US? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it's weird to hear about times like that, where people weren't as excited to play Davis Cup, when the Davis Cup wasn't as much fun for the captain to deal with people that didn't like to hang out, to play cards together, to eat dinner together. I can't really speak too much about that situation because I've never been in it. Every Davis Cup team I've been on or a part of has been an unbelievable week, a lot of fun. The guys, we're flying together tonight to Houston. We all want to be around each other. Next week I'm going to go out and watch them play, they're going to watch me play. It continues throughout the whole year. We feel like a team all the time. I don't know -- in my opinion, if anyone has had the experiences I've had with the Davis Cup, it's a no-brainer. I don't know why anyone would ever turn it down. It's so much fun. Never been to Russia. Heard some interesting stories. There's no place in the world that they could send us that would make me want to turn it down. I want to be a part of this team. In an individual sport, it really does feel great to be a part of a team that feels like they're doing something and accomplishing something together. I mean, it's pretty tough to describe. It's exciting to me to feel like what the NBA or NFL or MLB teams really feel like, to be a part of a team and count on each other and support each other. DEAN GOLDFINE: One thing I want to add to that. One thing that's kind of changing the outlook of the players to come play Davis Cup is what the USTA is doing with the practice partners, trying to get these guys, the juniors, and have them come along, or some of the rookie pros come along for these weeks. These guys just have the best team. That makes them, as well, want to be committed to it. That's a goal for them I think then. Once they improve, they're a part of the teams, and they can hopefully one day be part of the Davis Cup teams. Pretty much all these guys, I think James, Andy, Bob and Mike, they did that at one point. I think you probably had a pretty good week, too, when you did it. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. They actually probably want to be on the team now so they can haze the practice partners like we hazed the practice partners. I think it's a big incentive to them that they can make fun of them as much as we make fun of the young guys. Q. (No microphone.) JAMES BLAKE: We can't tell. We have a new initiation this week, but we can't tell. The old one kind of got out. The guys already know it. We can't let the new one out of the bag. Q. Before La Jolla and here, you were passive in your responses when somebody asked you about being on the Davis Cup team. You would say, Maybe Robby would be a great pick, Andre. You're talking about now going to Russia. Are you in the mindset you've earned the fourth spot on this team? JAMES BLAKE: Absolutely not. I still feel Patrick is in the position -- I'd like to say it's the tough decision, but the luxury of having a tough decision where if one guy is going out and playing great on the clay, apparently that's not going to be Andre because I heard he's not going to play on the clay courts. If Robby goes out, he has the talent just like some of the top 10, top five guys out here. He can go out and win Rome. If he does that, proves that he's a force at the French Open, is a great claycourter, then Patrick can make that decision. I'll be there cheering. I'm happy with whatever team he picks. The way I'm playing right now, I feel like I'm kind of in the driver's seat. I hope he still understands that I'm not going to have any hard feelings. If I'm not the best person for the job, by all means, take the person that's the best for it. I hope it's me. I hope I'm playing this well still and maybe even better in October whenever the next tie is. I'll be ready for the call if he wants to give it to me. Q. Could you evaluate playing at Mission Hills this week, the grass courts, and also if you have another home tie on grass, where Mission Hills would stack with some other grass courts in America. JAMES BLAKE: Well, it was great playing here. All the facilities were unbelievable. The grass court was great. I really think this is probably the best grass court I've played on outside of Queen's or Wimbledon. In the States, I've never seen a grass court so well taken care of. Obviously, throughout the week it gets a little chewed up, especially from the doubles because there's people in different positions. It was still a great week, a great court. Facilities are unbelievable. Everything was fantastic here. I don't know too many other sites for grass in the states that would do it any better. Houston was fun when we were there. I think it's pretty much between Mission Hills and Houston if we have another grass court tie. DEAN GOLDFINE: I agree with James. Yeah, I mean I do agree with James. They did a great job here at Mission Hills, made us feel at home. The obviously, the one thing that makes it a little tough is when you play a Latin American country somewhere in California. It would be the same thing in Houston. You're going to get a lot of the Chilean fans or South American fans out. JAMES BLAKE: Were there actually fans out there today? I couldn't tell (laughter). DEAN GOLDFINE: In terms of the facility and the court, everything was great. Q. James, given this special camaraderie that you're describing, the amount of time you and Andy have spent together, now that you're both in the top 10, you're a lot more apt to be playing each other in big matches, is that going to be a bit more emotionally tough on both of you when that happens? JAMES BLAKE: No. I said this a long time ago, not really knowing if it would ever come to fruition. I became friends with Andy, Mardy, Robby, Taylor, the Bryans, going through the challengers. I always said at that point if we ever get to the point where we're playing the US Open finals, and US Open semis, big matches, competing for Davis Cup spots, I don't think there's any way those kind of things, like the money, the fame, the titles, anything like that can come in between friendships really. I'm not worried about it. I think it's tougher to go through it in challengers when you're really fighting for your living. To be honest, we're all doing okay now. It's not like we're fighting to pay our rent or anything like we might have been back in the challengers. I don't see any way that the titles and anything like that is going to get in the way of our friendship. We're going to compete like cats and dogs. We're going to fight hard when we're on the court. If Andy and I are playing in the US Open finals, I mean, we're probably not going to be giving each other calls, just chitchatting on the changeovers or anything. If we're in that situation, we'll compete real hard, put on our best performance during the day, and that night we'll probably be out at a bar together celebrating together. We're still going to be friends before and after. On the court, there's no difference, there's no change. We're playing our best, we're doing our best. We're putting on the best show we can. Q. James, you mentioned the practice partners earlier. I'm working on a story on Sam Querrey. You've taken him under your wing. Would you talk about any advice that you may have given him about his choice between college and professional tennis at this point. What do you think his future might be? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, he's a great kid. He's someone who when I was out in Chicago last year, I was spending time with my girlfriend before Christmas, he was willing to step up and say he'd come practice with me for the week, which to me I thought was something proactive in progressing his career because when I was that age, I didn't have the chance to hit with people that were better than me on the tour level that often. When I did, it was such a help to my game. It improved me levels at a time. I think that week helped him. Proved it actually a little bit too much by beating me in the first set in the Pacific Life. Luckily I got back at him and won the second and third. I talked to him a little bit about college. Obviously, I have a little different perspective than other guys on tour in having gone to college. I think for him, he's still young, he's a great kid, maturing very quickly. I still think college, almost for anyone, except unless it's clear-cut like and Andy Roddick, two years of college, there's not much downside. I explained that to him and told him it's still his choice. He's turning into a man. It's time for him to make grown-up decisions. I think he'd have a great time in college. I think it would be perfect. Now he's got some experience in being a practice partner, getting hazed. He'll be used to it next year as a freshman. I think he'll also take the college tennis world by storm. He'll be one of the top 10 players pretty quickly. I think that will be good for him, help his confidence. Coming out here, he's already won a tour-level match, which is great. I don't think right away he's going to jump right into the top 100. I think it would be great for him to get a lot of confidence in college, work on whatever he needs to work on, come out here and instead of just beating me in one set, he'll be beating me in a couple. I think he does have a great future. I think we'll see him plenty out here on tour. I can't wait. THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
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