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PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 18, 2006

James Blake

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Questions for James.
Q. We all know you're pretty modest, but that was very impressive. Did you feel pretty good about your tennis?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I felt great. I think Rafael is an unbelievable player. I think he somehow brings out the best in me because I played some of my best tennis against him at the US Open, and today was a little trickier with it being a little colder and windier, but I still managed to feel great about my game.
I didn't think my serve was coming in very well at the beginning, but I managed to do everything else as well as I could, and returned his serve very well. It came down to a couple big points here and there, and having to make some gets like he does to everyone else, too, maybe frustrated him a little bit that way.
But then as soon as I got my chances, I knew he's the type of guy that you have to kind of jump on that first chance. You can't wait for two and three and four opportunities in a point, you got to take that first chance to get on the offensive. If you let him get on the offensive, big trouble. He plays defense so well. If you let him get on offense, you're in big trouble. That forehand is huge, creates so much torque on it, there's not much you can do.
If you're running from eight feet behind the baseline, I think the only guy that could defend against that is him possibly. It's pretty tricky to do. I needed to take my first opportunities.
It's kind of good when you have that clear mentality in your head. I think that helped in bringing out the best in me, is that you know you have to come through on that first opportunity. You can't get complacent. You can't just rest and kind of lay back and wait. You got to go after it.
When you have just kind of a singular focus, sometimes you play your best.
Q. How excited are you, or are you not trying to get yourself too excited, still a job to be done?
JAMES BLAKE: I'm extremely excited, but I need to work on my acting skills for Hollywood and pretend that I'm not just in case there's any casting agents around.
A lot of times in some of my biggest matches, my friends have told me that I appear extremely calm. That really is acting because I need to tell myself time and time again, okay, just be calm, it's another match, it's another breakpoint, it's another game point. Focusing on the real simple things about it.
Conscious effort, kind of like when I was a kid growing up, I had to consciously tell myself not to act like a brat, not to throw your racquet, whine and cry. If you're consciously telling yourself, eventually it becomes a habit and you're just so used to it. Now I don't have to think about that any more luckily.
I think the more I get into these matches, it's a conscious effort to be calm and hopefully I'll be in plenty more of these matches, where it just becomes natural. Like it seems to be with Roger, where he's been in a million of these. I don't think he's going to lose any sleep over it tonight. So for me tomorrow, it's probably going to be still a conscious effort to calm myself down and then it will be preparation for the next time.
Hopefully I'm in one of these where I can be a little more calm without having to think about it, kind of the way I did when I was growing up and have learned how to be a pretty decent sport, I'd like to think.
Q. Do you think it's any coincidence that your two wins against him have been in the States, big stadiums, people hollering for you?
JAMES BLAKE: I think it's a lucky coincidence for me that those are the two occasions I played him. If it was Philippe Chatrier stadium, might have been a little more difficult to beat him. Obviously, my best surface is hard. I'd say his second best surface is hard. I think he plays best on clay, hard, then maybe grass.
I'm definitely happy I played him in the states on hard when I've been playing well. Definitely fortunate for me. I don't know what else I can say about it. If it's a coincidence?
Q. It's a happy one.
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it's a happy one.
Q. You referred to Rafael's defense. In terms of defense or defense to offense, who do you think is better, Rafael or Roger?
JAMES BLAKE: It's a tricky one. Obviously they're the two best players in the world, so they're probably 1 and 2. The difference is it's extremely close. I haven't played Roger since last year at Cincinnati. Let's see. Geeze, that's a tough one. That's putting me on the spot. They're both pretty darn good. That's like asking, whose jumper do you want, Larry Byrd's or Michael Jordan's? I mean, you can't go wrong with either one.
I don't want to answer that for fear of the next time I play both of them. Maybe I should answer Roger since I have to play him tomorrow. They're both unbelievable at it.
Q. (Question regarding someone in James' player box.)
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, he's a good friend of mine. He's represented by Joel Smoller (ph), who also used to represent Sampras. Got to know him through her a little bit. I'm a huge basketball fan. I've gotten to see him a few times when I've been to LA. He's come to The Open a few times. He actually over at Wimbledon a few times when he was injured. He had foot problems toward the end of his career. I've gotten to hang out with him quite a bit. He's a fan of tennis, just a fun guy. We always joke with people while we're out that we're brothers. Especially when I had my hair, we would look pretty similar. He had crazy hair, too. People think like he's my big brother. He kind of acts like that, too, sometimes. He's a good guy.
Q. Backhand looks 300% stronger. Have you really been working on it?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. Especially when I had the time off, all I could really do is hit fed balls because I couldn't see very well, I had blurred vision. I couldn't really do a ton of stuff on the run. All I could do was hit balls. I hit a ton. Ended up getting into the gym a lot more, getting stronger. That's something I worked on and I think makes a huge difference. Mike Nishihara, Mike Zamboros a have helped me out a ton at Saddle Brook.
I think those balls, especially against guys like Nadal and Andre when they're hitting the ball up so high, a few years ago, maybe three or four years ago, if I'm hitting a backhand up here, I didn't have the strength to go through it. Now I do. I feel confident enough to go for those and to still be able to get some pace on it.
It was really just a matter of hitting so many balls that I got confidence in going for my shots as opposed to kind of just pushing. When I would get pushed back, I would have to shorten my swing and just push. Now I don't feel like I need to do that. It's possibly from hitting so many and getting confidence and also realizing that's what I need to do to get to the next level, is I can't just push and play defense. I need to do like Rafael and Roger, turn defense quickly back into offense.
Q. A lot of players, when they have a dip, tend to change coaches, do something momentous. You're a rarity in the fact you've had so many ups and downs but stayed extremely loyal. What is the secret of that particular association?
JAMES BLAKE: I mean, I don't think you guys have enough tape for me to tell you how much Brian has meant to me. He's got me from an 11-year-old brat with some talent and no coach wanting to work with me. Honestly, I was first with his boss who turned me over to him. About a month into it, I'm sure Brian wanted to give me back to him because I was the biggest brat in the club. No one wanted to deal with me.
He's gotten me that everything. He knows my game better than anyone in the world. A ton of people don't give him the credit that he deserves. I tried to mention it last year when I won New Haven, after I was down a set, on serve in the second set. It didn't look like it was going my way. We got a rain delay, I was able to talk to him. I came back and I won pretty handily after that.
Everyone wants to give me credit then. You know, Brian is not one to take credit ever. But I got to give him credit. It's a well-kept secret that he's also one of the best coaches in the world as well as being someone who is a friend to me, a mentor, someone that helps me just kind of be a better person.
I mean, the time when I was out and injured, there were times when I would try to hit, was so frustrated that 20 minutes in, I could barely hit a ball. I'd sit and talk to him for an hour and a half. He wasn't getting paid any extra for that. He wasn't doing it -- he was doing it out of the goodness of his heart. He could have been taking trips with his family, could have been going out, playing golf. I wasn't getting any better at tennis at that time. I was just learning about life, a little perspective from him.
When I got hurt in Rome, I was in the hospital for three days, he was in the bed just three feet from me. He just stayed in the hospital. Could have gone home to New York, but stayed in the hospital room with me, just kind of getting me through that, getting me to laugh at those times. I wouldn't be comfortable with someone else. I just feel so much more comfortable with someone that knows my game, knows when to say something, when not to say something. I think some of the "super coaches," the guys who are getting -- making -- getting some of the top players right away, they feel like they need to make a difference, they feel like they need to say something. I understand that. If you're getting paid a lot of money to coach somebody, you feel you need to do something.
There are practices where the most Brian will say is, "Good job, way to move your feet." Sometimes that's all you need to say.
He knows when to be quiet and when to talk. He's done an unbelievable job with that. There are times when we have our routines, we have things that we know how to do. It's just such a great kind of chemistry that I'm happy that he's with me. He's stuck with me. It's more him sticking with me than me sticking with him. He can't get rid of me. I'll be loyal to him as long as I have a career. I've been thrilled he's been with me. There really isn't, I don't think, a better coach out there, with all due respect to all the other guys out there. I think Brian knows so much about the game. Everyone jokes about how uptight he is in the box, but that's 'cause right now if I went home and asked him what happened at 4-All, breakpoint, he'll remember it. He'll know this is the guy's pattern, this is what he's done to you before. We can then talk about it and go from there. This is what you did, this is what you need to do.
But he'll also at times know patterns and not say it to me because he knows it will get into my head and I'll think about it too much. He knows my psyche so well. If he was out there playing me, he would know where I'm going before I would I think most of the time. Luckily he doesn't have enough talent to do anything about it. I think I could still beat him.
Q. You got Nadal this time. You got Hewitt. Next step is obviously tomorrow. Do you have enough confidence in your game to really play with him?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I mean, I played pretty close with him last year, 6-5, had a good match. It just came down to a couple points here and there. No reason to think that I can't play with him.
He obviously is the best player in the world right now by pretty far I think in the points, he's way ahead. There's no shame if I go out there and I don't play my best tennis and he beats me badly. I'm going to go out and do my best. I think if I am playing well, there's no reason why I should be extremely surprised if I should win or if I'm in a fifth-set tiebreak or anything like that. There's nothing to change my attitude about that. I'm going to go out there, like I said before, kind of pretend I'm calm, go about my business and see how it goes.
I think the way I've been playing and the confidence I have gives me a chance. I'm in the finals, so hopefully that means I've got the best chance out here right now to play with him.
Q. When Pete was so dominant, he had a slight advantage going out of the locker room. Do you think that holds to an extent?
JAMES BLAKE: Well, being that I'm on the other side now, I'm going to try to say it's a disadvantage because I like to hope that. But, I mean, he's the No. 1 player in the world by far, like I said. Hopefully the pressure's on him. Everyone expects him to come out and win. He lost I think one set this week. He tends to just roll through guys. Last year in the finals here, he kind of rolled through Hewitt.
He's kind of gone through people pretty handily in finals often, semifinals, quarterfinals. He went through Paradorn, who is playing great tennis, pretty handily today. I like to think that he has the pressure on him. I've got no pressure. If I do go out there and lose, we'll just credit it again to one of the greatest players of all time playing well.
I like to think I go out there with the advantage of being able to play loose and play my game and not worry about what you guys are going to say if I lose or what's going to happen. If I do happen to win, then maybe I'll have to deal with some of that pressure next time.
Q. He just lost to the guy you beat.
JAMES BLAKE: He did, which kind of can give the rest of us on tour a little glimmer of hope that he is fallible, he is human, someone can get him. Rafael I think might be the only guy that has a winning record against him.
It's possible. Maybe I need to go home and learn how to play lefty or something. I don't know. I'll try to figure out some way to get him tomorrow.
Q. Besides playing lefty, what else do you have to do to get past him?
JAMES BLAKE: Well, I mean, today I felt like I played great. The only thing that I would have liked to see happen a little better is my serve, my first serve percentage. It came in when I needed to, on the breakpoints, on the big points, especially that last game. But against Roger, three out of five, it's going to have to be more consistent. That's the one thing I'm thinking about.
But otherwise I feel like I returned well today. Could have put a little more stick on my volleys, but it's tricky with the wind. Otherwise everything felt good. That's my game. I'm going to go try to play my game.
Q. Talk about your opportunity of trying to get the chance to beat No. 1 and 2 on successive days.
JAMES BLAKE: It's a pretty good opportunity, but it's not easy to do. I don't know. Hopefully I'll have a happy ending to it tomorrow. You never know. It's a great chance.

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