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NASDAQ-100 OPEN

March 30, 2006

James Blake

MIAMI, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. You played him a lot better this tournament versus last tournament.
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, and I'm learning. I was just talking in the locker room, I feel like I'd get better and better if I played him every single week. You learn from when you're playing someone better than you and when you're playing the best. That's the best chance to learn.
Today was another learning experience. Maybe I'm a slow learner; it might take me a while. But maybe one of these days I'll get over the hump and be able to get a win against him.
Q. James, how difficult did you control your game against Roger Federer?
JAMES BLAKE: I felt like I controlled my game pretty well. I only got broken twice. I had one break on him, had a couple breakpoints. He played unbelievable on one of the breakpoints, so I thought I could have gotten another break.
But that's what makes him No. 1 in the world. I did my best to control my half of the court. Even when I got down a break in the second set, I managed to hang on to my serve every time, do what I could to put pressure on his serve, but he kept hitting his spots really well. That's tennis, what can you do?
Q. What are your feelings about that fantastic overhead that you hit and that just came back?
JAMES BLAKE: Unbelievable. I was just talking to my coach and actually to Andy in the locker room. We were talking about some of the things that he does that are frustrating to us because myself and Andy now are very frustrated by playing him a lot. We got through talking about a bunch of things and then I was like, "And that's not even to mention I hit a jump overhead as hard as I could 130 at him and he just blocked it back like it wasn't much of a big deal."
I mean, just those things, you don't even think about how good he is at that.
Q. It took McEnroe and Borg a couple of times before McEnroe finally surpassed him. It's too early to ask that kind of question, but it seems like you might be his main threat this year.
JAMES BLAKE: Well, I think Rafael Nadal might have something to say about that. That's an honor if I'm his main threat. That means I'm doing pretty well against the rest of the field. I feel like I push him to play well against me. I'm starting to feel like one of those players, basketball players, that was playing in the early '90s. You feel like you make Michael Jordan play well, but then every time he comes up and beats you and makes you realize why he's the best.
I feel like I push Roger to play well, and then he does (smiling). If I keep doing that, I feel like I'm doing my part. That's the best I can do.
Like I said, I'm learning. I learned today. I learned last week. The more I learn, hopefully the better I get, and maybe one of these times even Michael Jordan had to retire some time. We'll see.
Maybe Roger will get caught gambling or something, I don't know (smiling).
Q. You're saying about the Michael Jordan thing. How do you keep from believing in your mind that you can't beat him? What makes you keep thinking you can?
JAMES BLAKE: Well, you just got to keep going back to practice. Like I said, you keep learning. I felt like I played better this week. I managed to control instead of once he got up a set and a break, I didn't let him run away with it. I kept control of my serve and played well and kept fighting. So that's one thing I learned. Maybe next time I'll learn something better. If you go out there with a defeatist attitude saying you know you're going to lose, then, I mean, you might as well not be playing the sport or else you're doing it for the wrong reasons. I want to win every match I play. I feel like I can.
Like I said, I feel like I push him to play well. Maybe one of these days, he'll get a bad night's sleep or have a fight with his girlfriend or something, I don't know. But maybe just one time he'll play badly against me.
He seems to find ways to win even when he is playing badly, but if I keep getting chances to play him over and over, maybe I can capitalize on one of those bad days, I don't know.
Q. When you look at the players that have beaten him, do you think there's any one particular way that you think you have to play against him, or is it a question of playing unbelievably well?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, you pretty much just have to play unbelievably well. I mean, at the level we're at, guys can play. When the guys are playing their best, it's tough to beat anyone at this level. So you have to play your best and kind of hope he's not playing his best.
So I think that's what's done it for some of the guys. Rafael has probably been the only one that's had continued success against him, but the other guys, it seems like they just happen to play unbelievable. I mean, that match with Nalbandian was just great tennis. The match with Gasquet, I didn't see it, but I heard was just fantastic tennis.
I think you just have to play unbelievably well. That's what I have to hope to do. You go out there, you know you're not going to win easy; you know you're not going to go out and just play average and beat him. You know you have to play really well. That also kind of frustrates people because you can go for too much. That's another thing I learned this time, is I didn't start going for too much. Especially when I got down, people tend to just start slapping for lines, and you end up kind of playing into his hands. I'm proud I didn't do that today, but one of these days I want to hit those lines.
Q. Is there anything wrong with the guy? Is there anything at all wrong with him?
JAMES BLAKE: Man, he speaks too many languages. He was in here for too long. He was doing it in Swiss German, French, in English. I mean, pick one. Gosh (smiling).
No, I mean, I was hoping maybe I'd be better at him at the challenges, but we were both 0-for-1 tonight. I didn't even beat him in that.
I don't know. There's not many things I can say bad about him. That's another thing. He's like my brother, I think one of his good friends always had the classic line - he's the kind of guy you love to hate, but you just can't because he's too nice. He's one of those guys that everything comes so easy to him, you want to hate him, but then he goes and does something nice and is as classy as can be. He's too darn nice - another reason you can't hate him (smiling).

End of FastScripts...

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