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NASDAQ-100 OPEN

March 27, 2006

James Blake

MIAMI, FLORIDA

JAMES BLAKE: First question, please (smiling).
Q. Did you get a wakeup call after that second set?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I got a wakeup call early this morning. I know I needed to play well against Jarkko Nieminen. He's a great player. That's just what I went into the match thinking, that it was going to be a long match, it was probably going to be tough for me to win. Just about every match I've been going into, I've been going in with the same attitude that there's probably going to be ups and downs. It's not that often that I go through matches on tour where it's just you cruise through, you get a break early, you win the set, you get a break early, you win the set. It's not that often that those things happen. I know there's going to be ups and downs. I do a much better job now of once that second set was over, I had a pretty bad game at 5-4, missed a couple forehands. Instead of thinking about that going into the third set, I was thinking about, What do I need to do to win this third set? Just don't miss those shots, and keep him on the run. Keep forcing the issue, especially on the second serve. I was able to do that. Now I'm pretty happy I got through it. Like I said, he's a great player.
Q. Are you looking forward to a stadium match where you can use the technology, considering some of the line calls you got?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I definitely am looking forward to it. It's pretty funny. I mean, it says something about how good a guy Jarkko is. After a match, most people aren't very talkative at all and don't really want to see the person they just lost to. He was just talking to me in the locker room and said, "There was a couple close calls out there." And he said, "I think I actually got a couple breaks going my way."
On one of them I think the crosscourt backhand I hit to end the game on one -- at one point he said he was actually ready to play the ball because he thought it was in and they called it out. What can you do? I mean, that's not his job, and it is really nice of him to say that after the match because -- but, you know, I think it all evens out in the end. I got lucky with a couple let cords, too. Both of us got a couple breaks going our way.
It still came down to who, I think, played better in the end. And I got to -- I took advantage of the points that I had, the chances that I had in the third set.
It will be fun to challenge and see how I do. I think I might be a little nervous to challenge. I felt like I was right on those, but if I end up looking stupid if I'm wrong, I don't know, I've got nothing to complain about then.
Q. What do you make of how poorly people have actually done with the challenge?
JAMES BLAKE: I haven't seen. Has it been really bad?
Q. Really bad.
JAMES BLAKE: Really? Well, then I won't challenge anything unless I'm sure. I heard at the Hopman Cup, we were pretty good. We were about 40-something-percent being overturned, so I know we were pretty good then.
I haven't heard any of the stats here specifically. I'm stuck laboring out on Grandstand.
Q. It was like 25 out of 86, was that right?
JAMES BLAKE: 25 out of 86, that's pretty bad. Let's hope the guys -- maybe they're just hoping, they're not actually thinking they're right.
But, hopefully, we'll get better. I'll try to make my percentage higher.
Q. I noticed that your brother was watching the women's match.
JAMES BLAKE: They got shorter skirts, you know (laughter). I probably would have, too.
No, it's good to have him in the crowd, but I know where he's getting his paycheck from this week. He's been hitting with Kirilenko all week, all the time at Indian Wells. He's been helping her out. It was too bad she couldn't get through.
But he's, you know, doing his job, and now I guess he gets a break from that so he'll probably be back in the box with my match. Unfortunately, the schedulers didn't know that so they had us both at the same time.
Q. This bad percentage that the players have, of course we're going to go back to regular -- we're not going to have line calling until at the very least the US Open Series. I wonder whether or not the players are going to bring a different attitude to the court about what they think they see on the court.
JAMES BLAKE: Maybe we'll be humbled a little bit. I think a lot of us need that, so maybe we'll stop arguing with the umpire. Even I argued today a little bit. But I try, I generally try to do it very respectfully. I think I did that today. I hope there was -- I mean, I hope if the microphone is there they noticed it was at least somewhat respectful.
But maybe we'll realize that the guys, the linespeople, are getting it right. They're doing their job. As much as we think we're seeing something and we think we feel like we made a shot, I mean, I think when you see guys pretty adamantly arguing, they really felt like they made it or like the other person missed or whatever. But there's a lot of times when people are just arguing for the sake of arguing. Maybe it's more hoping. Like I said, I think some of these challenges might be just in hopes as opposed to really thinking that they're right.
I hope they realize that arguing, when you're doing that, kind of makes us look silly. I generally try not to argue unless it's kind of a factual thing where an umpire is maybe being inconsistent with overruling something that's farther away when they don't overrule one that both players feel is closer to him and a clear mistake. That's generally what I'm talking about.
But, you know, I know the lines judges generally do do their jobs very accurately, and they're pretty good. That's why we have the best out here.
Q. How much do you think of it as guys looking for make-up calls down the line?
JAMES BLAKE: They might be doing that. But I think that's kind of silly. I hope, like I said, I think we have some of the best line judges, and I think they're the most professional. Just because someone argues five or six times, they're not going to give them a free call the next time. I don't think they're doing that.
Especially with how hard -- I don't know how hard it is on the women's side, but how hard we're hitting the ball, you don't even have time. If they have time to think about, "This guy argued last time, maybe I should make this a make-up call," I don't think they have time, with it hitting in a split second, they're going to make that call right away. I don't think they have time to even think about that.
I've learned as I've gotten older. You know, when you're a kid, you think the world's against you, the calls are all going against you. They're not doing it on purpose. They're doing their best out there. Those are people. If you're out there yelling at them, you forget, you know, they might have kids. The kids are out there watching, they're seeing their mom or dad get yelled at by some punk kid. It's embarrassing. I feel bad for the people that are doing that. They shouldn't be. It's just a matter of respect for the people that are out there doing their best.
Q. Do you personally think that a player who hits the ball and sometimes is in a contorted position can see a call better than a linesman who is right there?
JAMES BLAKE: I believe at times we know kind of. I mean, I've hit balls where I can tell, as soon as I hit it, that's right on the line. Then it's also tricky sometimes. Like I said, they're not doing it on purpose, but sometimes they make the mistake of seeing kind of the angle the ball is going. It looks like it's probably going to go out. With the string these days, the ball can dip at the last second. I know there have been times where I thought a ball was going out and it just dips right on the line or dips right inside.
If people call it, if sometimes a line judge will call it too early, that can be frustrating to a player because they know they maybe just hit a winner or a shot to get the point in their favor, and it ends up not happening because they make a mistake like that.
But, like I said, it's a mistake. We make them, too. I don't get yelled at every time I miss a forehand, and they shouldn't get yelled at every time they miss a call.
I think we can tell a lot of times, but I think sometimes, like I said before, it's just hoping. It's breakpoint and you hit a ball that was really close. You wish you had that call. But I think sometimes we do know; we can feel it. Sometimes you can feel it. You can feel when you hit your serve. Even if you're kind of looking down, you can feel when you know you hit it well or hit it pretty darn close to the line or possibly you know that you hit it in. I know guys like Sampras had the ability, I'm sure he could tell every time he hit the line, he was that precise. I don't think I'm that precise very often, but sometimes I do know that I feel like I definitely just put that one on the line.
Q. Martina talked before you came in about the racquets, the courts and so forth. From the time that you started playing in Harlem and so forth, has the game changed in terms of yourself, but the racquet?
JAMES BLAKE: Oh, yeah, the game's definitely changed. I think with the advent of this poly mono string - the Luxilons, the, I don't know who else makes it, Babolat - they all make this poly mono string, and it makes such a difference. All the clay courters use it, I've been using it. Literally, the first time I put it on my racquet, I said I'm never switching to anything else, I'm using this for the rest of my career. It's unbelievable, the difference it makes. Racquets have gotten more technologically advanced. It really has changed. I think that's part of the reason it's taken away from a lot of serve and volleyers, because it makes it so much not easier to return, but your returns are much more effective. You can dip them to people's feet, you can swing a lot harder, and guys can stand far back and they know they can create enough power with these racquets and with this string.
It has made tennis, I think, much more enjoyable because it's made -- it's brought the level of the game up. You see guys hitting shots that didn't seem possible back with wooden racquets or back with natural gut, and it's -- I think it's great for the game. It's gotten better.
I don't know if Martina has used that to her advantage; I haven't seen her play that much lately. But I'm sure she's noticed a big difference because she was back in the day of the wood racquets. I think I'm just about on that borderline of people that never grew up with a wooden racquet. I never used a wooden racquet. I'm sure it's a huge difference for people like that.
Q. She said the manufacturers are trying to dictate the game. Do you believe that?
JAMES BLAKE: They might be trying, but I don't think they can be effective with that because if you're a top player, I think you use what you want to use. You don't care about if you're getting paid a little extra to play with something that they want. You're using what's effective for you.
For me, that's a no-brainer. I don't mess with my racquet unless I put it in my hand and it feels good. If it's something where I need to adjust, I'm not sure about it, I can't do that. That's then messing with my prize money, my state of mind, because I'd rather go out on the court feeling good, feeling like I'm going to win, as opposed to worrying about a racquet that might change something.
So I don't even know if they're trying, but they're not going to be effective with me and I don't think they're going to be effective with a lot of the top players. You see a guy like Roger Federer, he's using basically the same racquet that he has the whole time. Sampras used the same racquet for his whole career. Andre has basically used his, the same racquet, his whole career. They stick with what works. I don't think manufacturers can change that.
If they are, they're probably trying it at the junior level. If you get kids started on something, then I think they're going to stick with it. But I don't think at this level they're dictating anything.

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