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NASDAQ-100 OPENMarch 28, 2006James BlakeMIAMI, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Questions for James Blake. Q. Wondered whether your backhand was going to come out of the locker room today? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it started out a little slow. I think I was going for a little too much, and then I started being much more effective in the second and third sets, kind of rolling it and going back to my general basic plan, which is, you know, get the backhand to try and get them out of position to really set up my forehand instead of trying to win too many points with the backhand. It was much more effective, obviously. Q. In the second set, where he was up 40-Love and decided to serve and volley, do you think it's sort of where it clicked in for sure? JAMES BLAKE: Well, I think that really helped my -- helped me mentally, and I think possibly hurt him mentally. When you're up 40-Love, you feel like you should win that game. He obviously got out of his comfort zone to try and serve and volley. That's not what he's known to do very often. I think -- I was really pleased with the fact that I hung in. I think there was two games I was down 40-Love and came back and won. I'm really happy about that. So that was more my thinking. I wasn't really thinking as much specifically about the backhand, I was just thinking about the fact that I hung in those games and didn't let him get any free points. That's something that's important to do at this level. Q. What did you learn from the match against Federer in Indian Wells that you can carry into the next round? JAMES BLAKE: Well, I learned that I can play with him, you know. First set I obviously had chances. I was playing pretty well. But it's a matter of keeping that level up and not kind of getting ahead of yourself or not thinking too much about it or getting into your own head really and thinking about everything he can do. Because, obviously, he can do just about anything with a tennis racquet in his hand. But on a given day, hopefully so can I. I need to know that it's possible and know that I have no pressure on me and not worry and not think any differently if I'm up a break, two breaks, a set, whatever. And if I get down, try to stop the momentum. He got a lot of momentum going at the end of the match, and he really knows how to front run. So try not to let that happen. Q. Speaking of keeping your level up, you go out and you really have continued to build all the way back to September basically on this. Is it that you're kind of in an extended zone? Is it something you're actually forcing yourself to focus on week in, week out? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it's definitely something where I'm forcing every single match to be very aware mentally of what I need to do, and it would have been very easy to come from Miami, my first Masters Series, right into the next week to have a letdown. I managed to not do that. I was proud of the way I played the first round, proud of the way I played against Jarkko. Today, getting down the first set, maybe not playing my best tennis, it could have been easy to just, "I had a good couple weeks, let's get out of here and take a couple days off before Davis Cup or something." But I'm real happy that mentally I'm not able to let that happen. That's a good feeling. I'm impressed how Roger has done it for years. I mean, I've only done it since September. He's been doing it for about three years. I am impressed by guys who are able to do that week in and week out, keep that focus. It's really not easy. Especially with, I'm starting to feel about 1/100th of what Andy has been feeling for years with the expectations each match. Now people are wondering if it is a zone or how good I am, and I'm finding that out myself with other people putting expectations on me when I play a guy that's ranked 20-something or 30-something in the world, people just think it's gonna be easy. Well, to be honest, it's never easy for me. I'm not a guy that can go out and just routinely be beating these guys without a lot of effort. It takes a lot of effort for me. I'm finding out if I can continue to do that. To do that, I know I need to keep this mental focus up. Q. You had a long point against Nieminen, he blew himself out on the point. Same thing tonight. He won a long, spectacular point, looked like he was dead on his feet after that. Talk a little bit about your fitness level. JAMES BLAKE: My fitness level is great right now. I'm really pleased with it. The fun thing about it is I've done it in a very fun way. I've done it with playing a lot of matches. I haven't had to get out to the track and really bust my butt all the time. I did that in the off-season. I did that when I didn't have a lot of competitions going on. Now, when you play a lot of matches, that's sometimes the best thing to get you in tennis shape. Because I've been through a lot of long points, I've been through some serve and volley points, I've been through playing defense points, I've been through every situation that comes up on the court lately, and that gets me in great shape and I really enjoy it, too. I love playing tennis. This is the easiest way for me to get in shape. I feel like some guys have had to get out on the track and it's not exactly the same. I know I've done that hard work to make it so this run or zone that I'm in or whatever people want to call it has been possible. Because if you're out of shape, you win one week, or you do well one week, the next week you're too tired to be successful. Because if your legs are a little weary, you see what can happen with a guy like if Chela lost his legs a little bit, it becomes very difficult. I definitely feel great on the court, though. Q. When did you feel like you'd worn him out? JAMES BLAKE: Well, that long point did help because I went to -- I remember that was a breakpoint for me and that can really turn it. If you save a breakpoint and come back and win that game, it can be important. I really just missed a routine ball. That next point, I kind of made it a point I wanted to make sure just keep the ball deep and make him beat me. If he can come out and his legs are strong enough to come out and really rip some winners on me, fine. But I wasn't tired at all, so I was ready to keep running and if I needed to at that point. But all I needed was a couple pretty decent deep balls, and he made a mistake. That made me feel really good that he might have left a little something out there with that long point. So I was really pleased with my fitness level. Q. So we can call it a "Rope a Dope" technique you got going? JAMES BLAKE: (Laughing). I don't think it was Rope a Dope. I wasn't kind of hanging my head or pretending like I was tired; I felt good. If I go to that tactic, then I know I'm probably in trouble. Hope I don't need to go to any sort of gamesmanship or anything like that. Q. What kind of thoughts were seeping into your head in that last match against Federer? You said you have to try to not start thinking about things he can do. What things were you thinking of? JAMES BLAKE: Well, I mean, being up 4-1 and two breaks, you start thinking, "All right, I just need to hold my serve, just kind of hang on to it." You got an easy ball, you can kind of guide it instead of really just going after it and as if you're down and you need the point. You kind of need to trick yourself into thinking, All right, just keep playing exactly the same way like I had been playing. Before that, I was playing like I needed every point and I was really focused on each one as opposed to, All right, I'm up 4-1, can just kind of guide this one into a corner and he won't be able to pass me. Then you end up making more mistakes when you're trying to just push and when you're trying to just kind of place a ball instead of going after it. We've hit enough balls in our life that we know where it's going to go even if we're going after it. Q. In theory, you're out there going out to play every match. You get out there tonight, find yourself down at the end of the first set. It is easy to bail, you can walk away, you've had a great run. What's your reaction? Is this going through your mind, that you have to tighten it down here? What are you feeling? JAMES BLAKE: My feeling at that point, I remember thinking about, All right, now I need to prove myself. Because, you know, there are different things you can prove out on the tennis court. Obviously, there are times when you can prove that you can play with the best in the world; I've done that a couple of times with Nadal and Hewitt. There are times you need to prove that you can fight from being down a set and a break. For me, this was a time to prove it. Each match for me now is an effort to prove mentally how much better I've gotten. Tonight was another opportunity. When I lost that first set, I said, "Okay, now, this is a very good player, one of the top players in the world, he's playing well, and I've got a million and one excuses why I could lose this match and I want to prove that I'm not going to be one of those guys that does it. I'm going to go out there and try to win it. If I go down, I'm going to go down swinging and playing my game. Maybe the guys in the locker room will see that. Maybe they'll notice I'm still fighting for every point." I was proud that I did that when I was down 40-Love a couple times and came back and still won those games. I wanted to prove to myself, to my coach, to whoever else was out there, whoever wants to know, that I'm still mentally in it. If I'm down a set and I've been playing 15 matches in the last three weeks or whatever, I'm still wanting to win each one. Q. Federer is so good at blocking back those backhand returns. Is it key for you to sporadically come in behind your serve to his backhand side? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I mean, I think I try to do that a lot of times with guys that play defense with my first serve. First and foremost, I need to make a lot of first serves to give myself that option. But then if I am making a lot of first serves and he's beating me with just blocking it back and getting into the middle of the court and kind of neutralizing the point, then, yeah, you got to change your tactic because you can't let someone beat you when you're making first serves that way. But that's not something I'll think about too much before the match. We'll kind of see how it goes. If I need to, then I'll adjust. If he's not hurting me with it and I'm still getting forehands that I like to hit from the middle of the court, then hopefully I won't need to change. Q. Andy has proved to not be real in-depth at serving and volleying. Can you talk about you doing it. JAMES BLAKE: I feel pretty comfortable serve and volleying. I used to do that I think to my own detriment very often when I was younger. I was about five feet tall and I was the only kid that was serving and volleying in 14s. My coach thought I was crazy, and he didn't know what I was doing. My dad loved it, he said, "Oh, it's going to be great in the 18s, in college." You know, I'm crying on the sideline because I just got beat 0-0. But I feel comfortable doing it. A lot of the guys' returns have gotten to be so effective that it makes it difficult to do it so often unless you're Taylor Dent when you're serving 140 or something which, unfortunately, I don't have. But I do like doing it a lot when it's sneaking in and catching guys playing defense, especially with how far back some of the clay courters stand. So I don't have a problem doing it. Andy has maybe had trouble, maybe it's also difficult when you're serving 150; you don't have that much time to get in. So if they do get it back, it's probably going to be at your feet and a tough volley. But I think for him it's more just to serve and watch them miss it. Q. I'm doing an article on top level Juniors deciding between Juniors and the pros. I wanted to ask you, maybe you could share an anecdote from your own college experience and how your college experience helped you. JAMES BLAKE: Sure. First off, my advice is go to college. Unless you're a clear-cut case like an Andy Roddick who was playing top hundred tennis level basically when he was 17 years old, I think a year of college is not going to hurt you. It's something that's going to be fun. It's one of the best, I think, stepping stones into the real world. Because you're going from your parents' care to being semiorganized where you have a coach, you have professors, you have people that are making sure you get to practice, but it's still on your own and away from your parents' kind of rule. But you still have to do a lot of things on your own and also you're starting at the bottom. You're a freshman, I don't care if you're No. 1 in the country. I came in pretty highly-touted No. 3 or 4 in the country, and I still had to carry guys' bags, I still had to sit in the worst seat on the van, I still had to pack up the van, do things like that. I think that helps you. It humbles you. It keeps you with the team spirit. It gets you a great group of friends. I had one of my teammates from Harvard here tonight watching me play. I think it kind of gives you a great start to life and to the real world, to what you're going to expect, because what I'm in right now is not the real world; this is a fantasy world. For kids to expect this is crazy. I think going to college, you maximize your opportunities if you're going there. If you dominate in college, you've proven at another level that you can succeed. It's a quicker jump from college to the pros, although it's still a huge jump. And also if you're worried about contracts and things, they're still going to be there if you dominate at college. If you don't, the worst thing that happens is you're getting a college education and most of them are getting it for free because they're getting scholarships, and you're having a great time. So I don't really see that much of a down side. I think if you're going to make it in the pros, you have to have an inner drive, you have to be able to make it on your own, and you're going to do that if you went to college. I proved that. I went to a college that wasn't really a tennis powerhouse, and I worked harder than all the guys there basically. I knew I needed to do that to get to this level. If you're willing to do that, I don't see anything wrong with going to college and enjoying it. Q. You, the Bryan brothers are maybe exceptions to the rule. Do you think there's still a place in the college game to develop people to become top 10 pros in the world? JAMES BLAKE: I absolutely do. Because, like I said, it's something inside you that you need to do out here. Very often you're by yourself. Very often, there are times -- I mean, once you're out here, your coach works for you. So if your coach tells you to go do sprints and you don't feel like it, you don't have to. It has to be inside you to go out and work. You're going to learn that in college and then you're going to have to prove that you can dominate at that level to get to this level. So I don't see really much of a down side, because if people say you're losing a few years, some of your best years, well, I don't really believe that at all because I think you're going to get there if you're going to get there. If you get there one year later, that's not going to change. Andre is still playing at 35, 36 years old. It's not like you only have one or two years out there. You can do this at 21, 22 and 23. I don't really see much of a problem at all. Q. Yet there's kids that are 13 years old, just came out today -- JAMES BLAKE: I heard, yeah, a kid signed at 13. Q. What does that say? JAMES BLAKE: I don't know. I hope he's got the right people around him telling him not to take losses too hard, to enjoy tennis. At 13 years old, I know I wasn't thinking about being a pro tennis player. I was thinking about candy and girls - well, not too many girls, I was five feet tall. So dreaming of girls (laughter). I was serving and volleying, though, yeah. Yeah, I mean,13 years old, to be signing with an agent, I can't even fathom that. But I'm sure the kid's got talent.
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