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WIMBLEDON

June 30, 2006

James Blake

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. James Blake. Who would like to ask the first question.

Q. How do you explain the last two sets? What happened out there?
JAMES BLAKE: He played well. My serve stopped going in. One of those things. He's one of the toughest guys to play with just a second serve. He proved it.
I wasn't making my first serves. Just went off for a little while. That hasn't happened to me in a long time. But it happened today against the worst guy.

Q. Any reason you think why it happened then?
JAMES BLAKE: It's going to happen at some point throughout a year. Unfortunately, like I said, it was against the worst guy for it to happen. A lot of guys, I'll be able to play, get in the points off my second serve, get into rallies, ad then kind of fight my way back into a match. He doesn't give you time or chances to do that.
You know, once it started going off a little bit, then I maybe started thinking about it a little too much. That's generally when it's a problem, is when I'm not relaxed on it. When I just relax and go after it, it's been going in a lot lately. Those last couple sets, it didn't.

Q. This is going to be a pretty tough loss to take. The guy was just red hot for most of two sets. When you finally got the break at 3-3, you just seemed to roll from there for the next set and a half. Then, poof, sort of disappeared.
JAMES BLAKE: Is there a question in there?

Q. Where do you go?
JAMES BLAKE: Where do I go? I go home. Like you said, he was red hot at the start. He was red hot at the end. Max Mirnyi red hot on grass, not a lot of guys are going to beat him. More guys are going to get more than one game, but not a lot are going to beat him. The way he was serving, the way he was volleying, the way he was attacking my second serve.
I don't know what else I can say. I played all right for a while there, then he figured out a way to start putting a ton of first serves in and going after my second serve, and he wasn't missing much.

Q. You seem real disappointed. Where is that coming from?
JAMES BLAKE: I just lost 1-0, so I'm pretty disappointed. My coach is pretty good at putting things into perspective. You guys generally do a good job of helping me by making it seem like the end of the world to lose a tennis match. I'm usually leaving these a little happier than when I came in.
But realizing that it is just a tennis match. Next year it will be forgotten because this year my match last year to Jan Hernych is definitely forgotten. The fact that I was a wildcard last year, coming in here ranked 110, 120, and now it is a big deal that I lost in the third round, it's a big upset. It's pretty funny to think about that last year if I was in the third round, everyone would have said it's such a great accomplishment to do that. Funny how expectations change.
But that's when you know the disappointment -- you know there is more disappointment, but that's how you know you're playing well, is when you're so disappointed to lose to a great player like Max Mirnyi on grass in the third round of Wimbledon. That's hopefully a good sign. Of course right now I'm a competitor, so I'm disappointed that I lost. I'll go back, think about it, figure out what I did, figure out a way to make some more first serves. Get on the practice court and hit more, and come back and get ready for the hard court season.
Hopefully I'll start playing my game even better on the hard courts.

Q. What do you think your fifth set problem is, James?
JAMES BLAKE: I don't know, Bud. I lose 'em. That's the problem. I don't know what it is. Today he played unbelievable and I missed first serves. Against Fernando González, it was he played great. Against Lleyton Hewitt, I was cramping. I can't pinpoint one thing. Against Wawrinka, I was cramping a little bit, as well.
Nowadays, I feel like I'm in great shape. I'm not worried about cramping. I'm not worried about anything else. I just didn't win today. I don't know what my problem is. I generally don't think about it on the court. It doesn't keep me up at night. I haven't worried too much about it. I know my time will come. Against Andre, it was he played an unbelievable two points from 6-All in the breaker. There's no one thing that I'm doing wrong in fifth sets, I don't think. But if anyone can figure out one thing, I'd love to hear it.

Q. When you realized that this was your next match, what did you think you'd have to do in terms of strategy? Once you were out there on the court and it was unfolding, did anything he was able to do surprise you or didn't fit with what you anticipated?
JAMES BLAKE: No, not at all. Max is an unbelievable player, but you kind of know what you're getting when you're playing him. When I saw that I was playing Max, I knew he was going to be coming forward 90% of the time. He's going to be looking to slice and get in off his backhand, he's looking to kind of blast and come in off his forehand. He's going to serve and volley almost all the time.
I'm real happy a couple times when I wasn't serving well, I got him to stay back for a while. That makes me feel good about how well I was returning. Then he started just coming in on everything, putting pressure on me the whole time. There wasn't any big strategy change from him, I don't think. For me, the only adjustment was to take a step back on his serve, that after the first set, and it was effective for a while, then he just started making first serves. Any time he's making first serves, it's difficult no matter where you're standing.
There wasn't a huge strategy differential. He makes the game relatively simple, and he does a great job of it.

Q. Have you ever been in a match where there were so many winning volleys hit off shoe tops, looked like you may have hit one off his ear once or twice?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I played him last week in doubles, so I saw plenty of those, too. He's one of the best doubles players in the world for a reason. He's also one of the best singles players in the world for a reason, and one of the best grass courters, because he makes those volleys, he's got incredible hands. He has great hands, and extremely large. I mean, he's huge. Up at net there, it's tough to get them past him. Sometimes the only thing you have to try to do is go right at him. It's tough because he's got great hands. Most guys that big, you can go right at them really effectively. With him, it's still difficult. You have to hit a perfect shot or just hope he guesses wrong. He does guess a lot, and if he's guessing right, the last two sets are what can happen.

Q. You're a thoughtful and reflective guy. How do you balance out the intense desire to win, the competitor's fire, with the understanding that it is just a sport?
JAMES BLAKE: Well, I'm a competitor for now until about I'd say give me till dinner time. Dinner time, I'm probably not going to be the most fun dinner companion tonight. But after that, then I'll be okay. Right now I'm a competitor. I'm frustrated that I missed so many breakpoint opportunities, frustrated that I didn't make my first serve in the last two sets. I'm real frustrated about all that.
But once dinner's over and I'll probably have it with my mom, my brother, my coach, people who have seen me at better times and know that it's temporary, my curmudgeon type activities, they'll cheer me up. I'm sure by tonight I'll be back to my old self and ready to have a good night out maybe in London, see some of the sights or something, get back on a plane, get back to the gym and to the tennis court on maybe Sunday or Monday, then I'll be right back to being a competitor.
But for the next couple days, I'll try to be that laid-back guy that I normally am.

Q. (Indiscernible) cross your mind today at all in the match?
JAMES BLAKE: Not really. I thought about it for a minute at the beginning of it. To be honest, I wanted to focus on making first serves. That didn't work out too well. Maybe I should have been thinking about it more. I don't know. But, no, I didn't think about it much at all.

Q. Looking forward, which is always a good thing after something like this, what is the itinerary leading up to the US Open?
JAMES BLAKE: I play Indy, a week off, then DC, Toronto, Cincy, New Haven and the Open. Hopefully get plenty of matches. I know the US Open Series did pretty well in it last year. Hopefully this year I can do even better, then have a great run at the US Open again.

Q. You brought up a few moments ago expectations. They are different now. You're a top 10 player. When you think about your overall body of work in majors, do you have to take a different mental or physical approach to two-week tournaments? What do you think is going on?
JAMES BLAKE: Well, I mean, up until now, I thought I was terrible on grass. This is a new expectation to even be expected to get through the first round. I mean, this is the only Slam I think going into it I had a losing record. So that -- you know, at least I think maybe I got it back to 50/50 now. But now I feel good about that.
So it's more a matter of the fact that I'm a different player now. In Australia, I had a bad match. In the French, it's clay, I don't think it's my best surface. Here, again, I don't think it's one specific thing. I think I have the ability to go deep in a two-week tournament, I just haven't broken through. I'm not worried about if it's going to happen. I think it's just a matter of when it's going to happen. I'm not that concerned about it. And if it doesn't, if it never happens, I don't think it will be one specific thing because I think my coach and I are intelligent enough to figure out if there is a specific problem and change that.
I think, like I said, in Australia I played one bad match. Tommy Robredo was 7, 8, 9 in the world, he played well. The French, like I said, it's clay is my worst surface. I felt like I beat one of the better clay-courters, then had a little bit of a letdown. Here is the first time I've been expected to go anywhere. I went to the third round, further than I've ever been. Clearly that's not good enough for most people that expect me to be a top 10 player and expect me to beat players like Max Mirnyi. He beat me today and played too good.
I'll come into the Open next year with the same approach I came in last year, that's try to win each match, try to play the big points well, try to focus on just that one match, and move on from there.

Q. Are you saying it's an unrealistic expectation for people, when you come into a tournament like this, for you to play up to your seeding?
JAMES BLAKE: No, I don't think it's unrealistic at all. I would like to do that. But I think if you look at how many seeds there are, how many actually play up to it, in today's -- you know, the depth of men's tennis, the way it is today, it's not easy to do. It's not unrealistic to expect it, but to expect it every time might be unrealistic unless you're Roger, and even he can't do it because he's got to win every single time to play up to his.
It's difficult. But, no, it's not unrealistic at all. I hope I can do it. I hope I can do even better. But if I don't, like I said, it's not the end of the world. There will be other chances. There will be other times when I'll exceed my seeding. There will be other times when I won't get up to it.
I think I did play to my seeding in Australia. In the French, I could have gone one more round, but didn't happen.
THE MODERATOR: Sorry, have to call it a day.
JAMES BLAKE: Thanks.

End of FastScripts...

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