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January 13, 2007

James Blake

SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES

Q. You said at the presentation that you thought destiny might have been on his side when he came back and pinched that second set?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, just little thoughts go through your mind. I was up two breaks, and I kind of played one loose point at Love-4, Love-30 where I thought I got outside myself, and then from there on, I can't really fault myself too much after that because he played an unbelievable second set after that.
That's why he is where he is and why he's done what he's done in this sport, because he keeps fighting every time, and we saw it time after time this week, down match point first round, match point second round, break in the third to Baghdatis and just fighting for every single match, and that's so impressive, someone who's accomplished everything he has in the sport to still be competing hard for every point, first round to the finals. That's just -- that's a true competitor, and it's something kids can look up to.

Q. Six titles in 12 months, you must be pretty confident heading to Melbourne?
JAMES BLAKE: Yes, very good little run here. I hope it doesn't end. I would love for it to continue into Melbourne. My best result so far in a Slam has been quarterfinal. I've run into some pretty good competitors in those, Agassi and Federer, but still, I'm looking forward to the chance and hopefully I can break through and make it even further than that. Not the easiest of draws to start out with to play Carlos again. It's tough to go from a final to a first round. I wish that match was taking place in the second week instead of the first week, but hopefully I can learn from everything I did today, everything I did right, and hopefully I'll learn from everything I did wrong. But I just want to have another good match and hopefully I can improve on my results at the Australian Open.

Q. You felt the transition of cheering for the underdog, sort of even at the start and then all of a sudden -- did you hear that? Did that affect your tennis at all?
JAMES BLAKE: No, it didn't affect me. I definitely heard it, though, when he was down a couple breaks in the second set, the chants of "Car-los." Lake I said in my speech, to be honest, that's what I missed when I was off the Tour. I didn't realise how much I missed it, but having fans, whether for or against me, but just having fans out there appreciating good tennis, and that's what they did. It's not like anyone was being anti-me, they were just cheering for Carlos, wanting the underdog, so I didn't take it personally. It was fun, they were having a great time, and that's what we're here for, we're entertainers. I'm glad to have fun, and honestly, those kind of things, those kind of moments when I'm standing there and we can't play because the crowd is still cheering, those are the moments that kind of give me goosebumps and make me so appreciative of what I do for a living. It makes me want to do this forever.

Q. In the second set when you had that second point and you had that standing ovation and all the people were on their feet, have you ever had that before?
JAMES BLAKE: I played Andre in a pretty good match in the US Open quarterfinals. I think when we got to that fifth set tiebreaker at 1:15 or so in the morning, there was a pretty good standing ovation there which I still think about, and I still get goosebumps from that match. I haven't yet really watched the whole thing on video, but one day I'll sit down with hopefully some kids of mine and watch that and be proud again and still hope that 6-All point goes my way next time when I watch it on tape.

Q. After some of the comments made earlier in the week, do you think tonight's match helped restore a little bit of credibility?
JAMES BLAKE: I hope the credibility was never in doubt of this tournament. People can say whatever they want, but it's silly to put words in other people's mouths, and it's unfortunate that that's what happened.
I never questioned the credibility of this tournament. I never question the credibility of any tournament I enter, otherwise I wouldn't enter it. When I'm here, I'm giving my best. You saw how hard Carlos Moya was working for this, and we have to play each other first round. If we were thinking this wasn't important, one of us would have rolled over and died and thought about next week. He wanted to win this, I wanted to win this, this is important to us. It's silly for anyone to enter a tournament and not go in with the idea of wanting to win, especially for a top player, a player that's really one of the best players in the world but still hasn't had a Grand Slam title or -- most of his success came from smaller tournaments, so to go about it and say that this tournament isn't important just to me seems crazy.
I hope it was never in doubt, and if it was, then yes, today's match I think proved to people that we care about this, and there's no even thought in the back of my mind of just kind of throwing it in and worrying about next week.

Q. When you won the tournament here for the first time last year, you emulated your hero Arthur Ashe by winning it. Tonight when you won it you joined Lleyton Hewitt and Pete Sampras as the only two players to turn professional and win back to back. No one has done it three times.
JAMES BLAKE: That's pretty good company, I have to be honest. It's amazing, when I hear it, last year to be compared to Arthur Ashe, this year to be compared to Sampras and Hewitt, it's staggering to me. I still feel like the same kid that's five feet tall and nervous and self-conscious going into high school and worried if I'm ever going to grow and worried if I was ever going to stop wearing that back brace and now to think that I'm even thought of in any kind of scenario with those kind of players is just crazy for me.
Now I've got two tournaments that I've heard that it's never been done three in a row, Stockholm and here. I'm going to try to do it at Stockholm this year and try to do it here next year, you never know. I hope I'm healthy, I hope I'm playing this well, but I'm also realistic and know anything can happen between now and then. I've had enough ups and downs in my life to know anything can happen, but I sure would like to come back here with the same kind of confidence I had this year and see what happens, see if I can get it done three times, then tell my kids one day that I did better than Pete Sampras and Lleyton Hewitt at something.

End of FastScripts

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