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AUSTRALIAN OPENJanuary 22, 2007James BlakeMELBOURNE, VICTORIA THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Three very tight sets. What was the difference between you and your opponent? JAMES BLAKE: He played better today. Served better, returned better. Yeah, I'm sure there's a million reasons, a million excuses I could come up with. That's never been my style, though. He played better than me today. He won. He's going through to the quarterfinals. I'm not. Q. Do you feel like you ran into a buzz saw with the way he's playing today? JAMES BLAKE: No. I felt like I had my chances. I was up a break in the second. I was Love-40 with three set points in the first set. Served great. Served his way out of it. I felt like I fought hard in the third set to give myself a chance to get back into it. He's playing well. There were a few points there I'd love to have over again, but that's the way it goes. The difference between one day, I played great on my big points against Ginepri, and today he played great on the big points. That's I guess just the way it goes. He played better. Q. Did you feel at all lethargic? JAMES BLAKE: I didn't feel my best today. It's not an excuse. I don't want to make those. He played better than me today. Q. How different was it to play outdoors after being inside so much? JAMES BLAKE: Another excuse we could throw out there. I don't want to do that. He played better. I got to be professional enough to know how to play outdoors. I played all my matches outdoors last week in Sydney. It wasn't that hot. It wasn't like I was sweltering out there or anything. It was actually a perfect day for tennis. Q. What's the biggest difference with Fernando in terms of the player that you used to run into a few years ago and the player he is now, in terms of temperament, you know, how he goes about business? JAMES BLAKE: Everything about his game is better now. His forehand's more consistent. It's still a great weapon. His backhand's more consistent. He doesn't let you get it there as often. Serve is a lot bigger and a lot smarter. Fights harder. I think it shows overall in his ranking and in his results. Everything's just gotten better. He's a better player, higher-ranked player, more dangerous in a Grand Slam. Q. How do you assess his chances in the tournament? JAMES BLAKE: Pretty good. The way he served, he's playing the winner of tonight's match. I think he's got a chance. Nadal will give him some balls to hit. Andy Murray will give him some opportunity to take advantage of his serve possibly. They're both obviously incredible players, especially Rafael being No. 2 in the world, proven he can beat anyone in the world. It's going to be difficult for him. I don't think there's ever going to be a quarterfinals that he plays in a Grand Slam that's easy, but I think he's got a chance. Q. Did you feel that you had a chance to get back in it when he got a little tight serving for the match? JAMES BLAKE: Definitely. That's why I told myself down 3-5, serving, down two match points, I want to give him the chance to get nervous. I want to see if he can serve it out. Great players can. He didn't this time. That's not to say he's not a great player. He's still a great player. But I wanted to give him a chance to get a little nervous, for me to put every return in the court, see if I could make something happen. I was able to do that. At that point, yeah, I felt like maybe the breaks were going to start going my way, maybe I'm going to come back and get this set. He served and unbelievable game after that. Served pretty well in breaker. Felt like I made a couple mistakes I shouldn't have. He kept his nerve. Like we're saying about him getting better, he kept his temperament very well and dealt with the situation and played great. Q. How do you assess your own tournament overall after coming in in such good form? JAMES BLAKE: It's tough to talk about it and assess it right now. Obviously there's still the sentiment of disappointment, a little frustration in losing a close match like that. Hopefully by the time I get on a plane, I'll have a smile on my face and I'll be okay with the way I played because I beat some pretty good players so far this trip. To be going home with one trophy is not a bad thing. I would have loved for it to have been two. Can't win 'em all. Wish I could. I'm frustrated right now about today. But hopefully when I get home, I'll be a little content, but still definitely motivated to do better next year when I get down here. Q. Do you think you might have put a little pressure on yourself just at this stage of the tournament, because of your ranking? JAMES BLAKE: I always put a lot of pressure on myself. I've gotten better about that as I've gotten a little older, more mature about not feeling like every single match is the end of the world. I hope my career won't ever be based on one single match 'cause that would hopefully mean I had a good career, that not one match is going to change that. I hope today's doesn't completely change the outlook of my career 'cause that wouldn't be such a good thing. I try not to put as much pressure on myself as I used to. I definitely am always my harshest critic. If it wasn't for my coach I'd probably be out hitting already right now, getting back in it. Would love to play some more tomorrow, but I know he'll make me take a day or two off to recover, let the body heal and everything, and just feel good about next week hopefully. Q. What do you want to work on now to get better at? JAMES BLAKE: Just this close to the match, everything. I want to make all his forehands. I'm frustrated about the volleys I missed when I had opportunities. Especially my serve. My serve I felt like let me down today. I'd love to hit a bucket of those, but we'll do that in a few days. Q. You talked before about giving him the chance to get nervous. What do you feel in your body when you walk to the service line to try to serve out a big match like this? What goes wrong? JAMES BLAKE: I wish I knew that feeling today. You know, it's actually a great feeling. When you're on that changeover, getting ready to serve out a match, there aren't many better feelings. I saw an interview with Mats Wilander recently where he talked about the best feeling he ever had was getting ready to serve out a Grand Slam. That's the feeling you remember for so long. You know it's in your control. You want to go out there, play your best, show you're not going to crumble, you're not going to make mistakes. You go out there, do it, and it's an unbelievable feeling. If you don't do it, you can rest assured you've got plenty of company. There's plenty of people that haven't served out matches, gone on to lose them or hung on to win the match. It's happened to everyone, including Roger Federer and Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. I don't think anyone's immune to it. It's a great feeling when you can do that, when you can go in there, hold your nerve, play great tennis, and just be solid and hold up your arms at the end of the match. Q. Of all these guys, the new generation that everybody is talking about, who do you think is likely to break into top 10 or make a splash in a Grand Slam tournament? JAMES BLAKE: It's tough to say. These guys have so much talent. Between the three guys of Gasquet, Djokovic and Murray, I mean Nadal is about their age, but he's already accomplished so much. He might be at a different level right now, but those guys there's been debates in the locker room. We've talked about who do they think is going to finish higher ranked at the end of this year and stuff. It's tough to say. I've played Murray. I've never played Djokovic. I played Gasquet. They're all exceptional players. It's impossible to say. One guy can get hurt. One guy can just gain confidence so quickly. One guy can lose confidence. I don't want to speculate on who is going to be the best. Q. Who will you be cheering for between Andy and Mardy? JAMES BLAKE: Oh, man, that's a tough one. Andy has been my Davis Cup teammate for a while. Mardy is my best friend on tour, my neighbor. I got to stay out of that one and just congratulate the winner, then hit them up for dinner. They'll be pretty happy to be in the semis. I know they're going to have a great match. It's really great to see Americans doing well. I wish I could have joined them in the quarterfinals. It's good to know we're going to have one American in the semifinals, hopefully even further. Whoever wins, I want them to win the tournament. I know Andy's playing great tennis right now. Mardy, this is uncharted territory for him. He's got to be excited. I'm going to enjoy watching the match. I can't really take sides. They're two of my best friends on tour. It's tough to say one or the other. Q. When you see guys like Larry Stefanki coaching González, Gilbert coaching Murray, do you wish those were guys working with some of the American players? JAMES BLAKE: No. Q. Just the global nature of the sport? JAMES BLAKE: I don't feel like it at all. I'm sure they're great coaches. If you find the right person to work with, that's what's important to you. I've always kind of felt awkward about the whole super coach mentality because if you have a great tennis mind, you have a great tennis mind. You don't need to let the whole world know about it. It doesn't matter what your name is. The main thing is making a connection with that player. I think some of the other greatest coaches in the world are guys that might not be the official super coaches. Kelly Jones I think is unbelievable. I think Luis Lobo, who works with Carlos Moya, is a great coach. They aren't the guys that people hear about every single day as guys who can turn a player around. Maybe it's 'cause I'm biased because I'm a player, but I think a lot of times the player has to get the credit. Brian Barker in my opinion is the best coach in the world. He can't get out there and hit a forehand for me, keep my head up on my serve. It's not his fault when I lose. I give him a ton of credit when I win, but I still went out there and did it. That's the same way Andy Murray is doing it. It's the same way that Fernando González is doing it. It helps to have a great coach, someone who understands you, understands when to speak up, when to be quiet, and how you react to those situations. It seems like Stefanki is working great with González. He's playing well. But, like I said, Fernando is the one out there acing me 20 times in a match. I've got to give him credit. Q. Roddick likes the Hawk-Eye. Federer hates it. What do you say? JAMES BLAKE: I weigh in on the side of the fans. If the fans like it, I like it. We're entertainers out here. For me it doesn't make much of a difference. There's human error in most sports. If there's going to be human error, I'm happy to accept it. If we can correct that with computers and technology, then great. But I don't want it to take anything away from the entertainment value. If the fans like it, which it seems like they do, I'm all for it. If they turn on us and they say it's taking the personalities out of it, you don't get the McEnroe-type reactions to the umpires and they want to see that, fine, then we'll take it out and go back to human error. I'm okay with that, as long as it's what the fans want. Q. Do you believe the accuracy that's claimed, particularly when you see the shadow come up, less than a millimeter? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I believe it. I've seen how they do the testing. I've been in contact with Gayle Bradshaw, seen how he's set it up, all the technology, how many cameras they use. Can't say I'm by any way a computer geek that can understand all that stuff. I know there are plenty out there that can. I did go to Harvard. I know plenty of people that build those computers, make those things. They make 'em pretty accurate. I'm sure they're doing a great job. Even if they're not, like I said, if the fans like it, they believe it, that's the most important thing. If it's just another matter of human error, so be it. Hopefully it will all even out. Q. Do you think it changes strategy, considering some players are on courts that don't have Hawk-Eye? JAMES BLAKE: No, I don't think it should affect us that much. I think we're all professionals. I've heard that argument before. I mean, in futures, if you don't have lines judges, you're calling your own lines, open challenges, you have lines judges moving. Outside of Grand Slams, you don't have Cyclops. There's just different basically budgets. You can't have a full lines crew the a futures event. You can't have Cyclops at a challenger event. You can't have Hawk-Eye on every court. Like I said, we're entertainers. The biggest show is the center court. If you have that and the fans like it on center court, then it's worth it. I'm also realistic. I was an economics major at Harvard. I know if you put it on court 17 and spend $80,000 on it it might not make that back in the entertainment value. I'm fine with it just being on center court. Until it starts showing some serious profits, I don't know if it'll be worth it to put it all on practice courts. Q. Davis Cup is coming up in the Czech Republic. When will you start preparing that? JAMES BLAKE: I'm scheduled to play Delray Beach next week. As soon as I'm done at Delray Beach, I'll be hitting on clay. I might even hit on clay a little bit when I go home this week at Saddle Brook. That's up to my coach. We'll talk about it. Figure what we want to do. I love the feeling of getting on the clay once in a while just to feel like I'm trying to improve on it, 'cause as Americans we don't hit on it that much. I might try to hit on it a little more and then get to Delray Beach hopefully still prepared for that. I do feel like I have some pretty good confidence outside of today. I'll hit on it whenever I get the chance. I think Andy's planning on coming to Tampa next week, too. Him and Mardy will have plenty of time to practice. The Bryans will be there. If I don't do so well in Delray, I'll be right back in Tampa getting ready. If I do well in Delray, then we'll say I got even more confidence. It will be a win-win situation. Q. Do you feel like your game is fully formed at this point? You've been through a lot in the last couple years and developed quite a bit. But to come to the point usually when people's games are pretty much written in stone, and from then on it becomes execution, where are you on that scale? JAMES BLAKE: I hope I haven't hit that plateau yet. I know every player hits a plateau, they can't get any better, can't add anything. I hope I still can. I don't know. Conventional wisdom says at 27 you can't add anything. I haven't done my career extremely conventionally. Nothing about it has been by the book. I hope I can continue to live that way and go through my career that way and continue adding things. I think my serve can get better. I think my touch, as proven today, was not spectacular. Hopefully that can get better. My volleys can improve. I mean, everything can improve. I really think there are some things I can work on. I really hope my game continues to get better. End of FastScripts |
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