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DAVIS CUP QUARTERFINALS: SPAIN v USAApril 6, 2007James BlakeWINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CARLOLINA TIM CURRY: Questions for James. Q. That didn't seem like your average run-of-the-mill win today. What was the meaning behind it for you? JAMES BLAKE: It's going to be difficult to express. It means so much to me. I come in here pretty sour at times after Davis Cup losses. But that's just kind of the highs and lows of Davis Cup. It's going to be so great to win, so tough to lose even more so for me. The memories of the first time I was here, hearing in the stands -- hearing my mom still and hearing my brother that, you know, it's taking the voice that sounds so familiar of my father. To know that my dad believed in me the way he did in 2001, that I would be on this team and I would be a part of it. You know, I never believed it, and my mom and dad did. My dad pushed me so hard to get to this point, to accomplish things I've been accomplishing. It feels similar now with people saying I'm in a slump or anything like that. I try to take that as a compliment, being top 10 in the world and still being in a slump. But people that really do believe in me were there in the stands today. They're the ones that know I'm going to be back to my old self in no time. And that was a big step in it today, to play as well as I did. It was just -- couldn't have been a better feeling with this atmosphere and with some really important people for me in the stands. It's amazing. You know, now I'm confident in Andy and confident in this team. I mean, I feel like I've now got another family in this team, whether it's the staff that helps us or the teammates themselves. You know, to have Mardy Fish, a guy that's 22 in the world, come in here just on his own to help out. Sam Querrey, who has done this three or four times as a practice partner, these guys care enough to take a week out of their schedule to be here. You know, it's another family. You don't ever want to let your family down, especially on your home court. We don't want to go out of here with anyone celebrating on our home court. Q. You mentioned your dad to us many times. Sounds like you kind of called on that memory a bit more today. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it's something where you're in a familiar setting, this was my first Davis Cup tie. I mean, I'll never get that smile he had out of my memory when he was watching me play. You know, I've said it a few times, that was the only match I've ever really been nervous at, that first Davis Cup match. To get through it because I knew they were there, I knew they were so proud of me. And he knew I was going to win. I was nervous. I was so uptight and scared. And he had that big smile on his face. Just happy that I was playing, proud of me, knew I would do my best. Coming off the court, he had a huge smile on his face. So did my mom. They were so happy for me and I was so happy for them. That's something that I'll remember forever. So coming back to the same place, my mom is sitting in a very similar position, and seeing her there with my brother, hearing his voice just as loud as my dad's in the crowd, and looking over and seeing them, it was just something that brings back memories and makes me want to win this match even more. Q. On television you said you never played in an atmosphere like this. We've seen you play at the Open in some fairly wild atmospheres. What made you think this was distinctive? JAMES BLAKE: Well, for one reason, the fact that I remember this being my first Davis Cup tie and the appreciation I got that first time as well as the second time now being a little more established of a player. But otherwise, Davis Cup always has a slightly different feel than any normal tournament because even at the US Open where I feel like I have biased crowds, people that are excited for me, I feel like a hometown kid there. They're still very normal fans, just general tennis fans, as opposed to here, people are very biased. It's not even one guy gets up, they kind of want to see the underdog comes back. They want USA to win. To have that feeling, like I said before, I wasn't there in 2004, but from what I heard, that was the exact opposite, that feeling. It made it so tough for the guys to go over there and succeed. I think the same is going to be true here. It's going to make it very tough for Verdasco and López and Ferrer and Robredo to succeed here because those guys are so much on our side and we feel that out there. It makes it easier to win a match, to get excited, to get the momentum, to keep the momentum. That's why it feels just a little different than anyplace I've ever been. Q. Talk specifically about what was really working for you today in the match. And are you disappointed that Nadal is not playing? JAMES BLAKE: Well, what was working for me, I was moving very well. That's something that sometimes gets lazy. When you get a little complacent, you start thinking you can just kind of reel off winners, not worry about your footwork, you're going to get in big trouble against top players. I was moving my feet well. When I do that, I end up getting a lot more forehands. For me that's the best thing. I'm hitting forehands, I feel like I'm controlling the point, when I am hitting forehands. I was doing that well. And my service percentage, I don't know exactly what it was, but I think it was pretty high. To be on an indoor pretty fast court, if you're making a lot of first serves, it's going to be effective. Even if I don't have an Andy Roddick serve, it's still pretty effective. As far as Rafael, you always want the best players to be here. But after getting a win, you know, that's what we're looking for in this Davis Cup tie. I do have a good record against him. I'd like to think that I would have still won. You never know. He's an excellent player. He's probably going to go down as one of the greats. If it wasn't for Roger, he might really go down as one of the greats. But he's an excellent player. I know he needs to be ready for the clay court season. I've heard that his feet are troubling him. In a young career, you really need to take care of that, I guess, and make sure you can have a lengthy career. Q. You mentioned the team is like family. Are these brothers, cousins, second cousins? How close? JAMES BLAKE: These guys are brothers. You know, to go in there, see the faces in the locker room, they definitely feel like brothers. It feels so comfortable. I mean, you don't have that many friends out there in the world, or family members where you can have a disagreement and come back and be fine with them. You can have competitive nature, go crazy on the court and then two hours later go to dinner and be joking about it. I think we have that. There's no fear of maybe these guys won't like me or maybe I need to say this or that. You can say what you want around all of us and we're going to keep anything we do say that shouldn't come out there stays there, anything that we do that's probably embarrassing, we can bring out here and make fun of each other. We can joke about anything. It definitely feels like a family. They all feel like brothers to me. It's such a good feeling. Like I said, it means the world to have a guy like Mardy Fish here, when he could easily just be resting and getting ready to defend his title in Houston. Instead he's here supporting us. I've done the same in Charleston, I've done that in I think Slovak Republic, I was there. It's just something that this team has. From what I've heard in years past, those are the teams that tend to sometimes overachieve, the ones that really do care about it. Even the Bryans, I know they're getting ready for their doubles match so they're not going to sit there and watch me all day. I wouldn't expect them to. But the first text I got when I came off the court was from Bob, saying they watched the whole thing. They knew they had confidence I would get that first point. Those kind of things, you know they're there for you. Q. Talk about playing this in a team setting, having a break, and how much momentum means in a Davis Cup tie, getting that first win? JAMES BLAKE: Well, first of all, you calling this a break is kind of a joke because this is hard work. I'm just kidding. Mentally this is tougher than any week of the year. These weeks are so draining physically and mentally because you're so invested in it mentally. So it's definitely not a break. I understand you mean breaking up the similarities from all the other tournaments. So it is different. You know, it's definitely tougher on your body. But for me it's a great thing 'cause I have the feeling of competing as a team. I've never reached the pinnacle of any team accomplishment. I was thinking about it just a few months ago, about the fact that I never won an NCAA championship as a team, I never won a high school championship as a team, intersectionals. Now to have a chance to do it at the top level would mean the world to me, especially since this team, as I said before, feels like family. We do everything together. You know, when we win, we have a great time celebrating together. When we lose, we have a quiet dinner and talk about it, talk about getting 'em next time. So that's definitely something that makes it easier. I think if we didn't all get along so well, these weeks would even be more trying because you'd be playing a little selfish and it would be kind of like a normal tour week where you're kind of doing things for yourself, you're trying to advance your career. We're not doing that. I mean, if I lose every match this year, and Andy wins every one, and the Bryans win every one, we win every tie, I'm not going to say it was a bad year in Davis Cup, I'm going to say we won the Davis Cup. I don't care how it happens. If I have to be the one that wins and Andy loses, we don't care, as long as we win. That's the best thing we have about this group. Q. In Key Biscayne you cracked us up by saying you needed to be a dumb jock to get out of your rough patch. Did you succeed at that? Your brother, Brian, Patrick, say anything special over the last couple weeks that helped you get your head together? JAMES BLAKE: Well, I mean, I think just the support of everyone helped. The fact that I came here, Patrick had the confidence in me to know that I'm still playing no matter if I lost a couple bad matches in the last few weeks. Brian and I did have a pretty long talk. Most people think that he's so quiet, never says a word. I implore you to have a phone conversation with him. Carve out at least an hour. We had one of those talks where it was a long time and we thought about more things that needed to be done throughout the year, but mainly just kind of the mental outlook, just thinking about being positive, not worrying about a couple matches. There's really nothing you can do about those. Then just really making a commitment to doing my best. The most important thing is I know -- once I know I'm doing my best, just to be happy with that, whether it means losing a couple matches here and there, as long as I know I'm doing my best, I am committed to it, I'm not taking too much time to do, whether it be media things, extracurricular things, social things, whatever, not to let any of that affect my tennis. If I'm doing that, I'm doing my best for my tennis and preparing as well as I can, then I'm going to be happier on the court. He said, and probably other people have noticed, I probably wasn't as happy-go-lucky on the court as I was today. That's just coming from knowing that I have been prepared as well as I can and just to kind of retool that perspective and make sure I am happy and things seem to go well when I'm just -- when I just have that smile on my face on the court, I'm enjoying it, I'm not thinking about anything else, that I should win this match, that I should win that match, anything like that. Just going out there and playing to play. Q. Mardy was in Seville in '04. You were home. Now Mardy is in the stands. Anything shared between the two of you after the match? Also, your mother, if you want to talk about that? JAMES BLAKE: Well, Mardy, we're best friends. I've heard so many people, especially the older guys from the States or any other country really, to think it would be so hard for two best friends to be kind of fighting it out for the No. 2 spot on this team really, and to be playing each other week in and week out. I remember the veterans years ago saying, Well, you know, this kind of friendship, it's probably not going to last. This kind of stuff can't last. It will. I don't know how else to prove it but to talk to you guys in five years or 10 years when we're both retiring, we're still buddies, still going out and playing golf together, still by that time hanging out with each other's families and stuff. He's a great guy. Same thing I said before. He's like a brother that we can say things. We've had arguments in the past. We've gotten competitive. We've both probably cracked racquets in practice in anger, gotten upset at each other in some sort of competitive atmosphere. But then we're right back to going out to dinner. Whoever was in the wrong will apologize, we're moving forward. Here this situation is a great one. It's tough for him I'm sure to sit on the sidelines. He's as proud as the rest of us. He has been working hard. I know he has been working hard. I know that feeling of being close and not really feeling like the joy of victory on the court, but just being proud of your teammates. I think it's going to make him work even harder. I think it's going to push him to get back on this team. If he gets back on this team, it means I'm off it, so be it. He'll still be my best friend. I'll have just as much confidence in him winning because I know that's Patrick's decision and it's something that's out of my control. If he's playing better than me, he deserves it. That gives us the best chance to win. I'd be just as happy for him. As far as my mom goes, just want to always let her know how much it means to have her here. She's here. I know what it means to her. I know how many memories she has of this place from the first time. Obviously there's nothing we can do about that. But I just have to let her know how much she means to me to have her here. Q. How big was the if first break in the first set? JAMES BLAKE: It was huge. I said on that changeover to Patrick, This is why I love serving first. If you take care of your serve, you get a chance to put pressure on a guy, you get a chance to see if they can hold their nerves to stay in the set. If they give you kind of one point, that was just because of nerves, for me I tried -- having accomplished what I've accomplished, I feel like that means for me I can take advantage of that, just go after, start attacking, put the pressure right on him. I was able to do that there. That just got me rolling. It brought back more memories of the first break I got against India here six years ago when I was so nervous. Then to get the first break at 5-6, just feel so good about it, just keep rolling through that match from there on out. I wanted to have that same feeling there, to keep rolling there it. Against a top 10 players, it's not easy to just keep rolling. He proved at the end he isn't going to let me just roll over him. So it was big to get that and to not even have to think about consolidating. You already won the set. Stay focused in the beginning of the second. Q. Is something like today, playing in a Davis Cup, helping your emotion and your momentum throughout the year since you struggled the last couple months? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, definitely it helps. Any kind of win. I joked in Miami that I had to trick myself to gain confidence. But I said the only real solution, the way to really gain confidence and get it back is to win matches. Whether it's in practice, whether it's in a tournament too, in Davis Cup, to beat a top 10 player in three straight sets, that's going to give me a little confidence. I feel great about it. If I'm needed on Sunday, I'll feel good and hopefully pretty darn confident at that point, too. From there on out, onto the clay where I don't always feel as confident, but I definitely like I've gotten better in the last couple years on it. I'm excited and interested to see how much I have improved on clay. Q. With how many winners you generated on the hard court, how can the speed of this court help? JAMES BLAKE: It definitely helped that it wasn't red. If it was dirty and red, probably not quite as many winners and I probably would have been slipping a lot more. On hard courts I feel like even a slow hard court, I feel like I have an advantage with being able to run down a lot of balls. Then when I do get the opportunity, I feel like -- I hope my forehand is a big enough weapon that it still can create winners. On any surface, if it's quick, I can shorten up the swing, use the court to help me create winners. If it's slow, I can get my feet working, get around and still be able to rip winners. I love playing on just about any hard court. This one suits me well. It suits Andy well, I think. The Bryans, they can play on this, they're going to play pretty good doubles. For them, I don't think it makes as much difference, but for us it suits us really well. I have a feeling Fernando is going to have a hard time seeing a lot of Andy's serves out there. Q. Your relationship with Brian, most athletes, they cannot hear the same voice for as many years as you've worked with Brian. Why is it? How is it that you are still listening? What is it about that relationship that's made it last this long? JAMES BLAKE: I don't know. I don't know how he's been able to keep me thinking, keep me with the right perspective. Sometimes, like I said, there are times when we'll sit on the phone and talk for two hours, then there are times we'll go through two practices in a row where he doesn't say a word. I think that's what's important. I know what he's going to say something, I have to listen, because it's not like he's going to tell me every time I hit a backhand into the net, you know, 90% of the time I was just too far in front. He doesn't need to tell me that every single time. I know that. He knows certain things that I know, then he'll tell me something if he sees something being a pattern. We have a relationship where he can say anything at any time, but I know when he does say something, he's taken the time to really think about it. And Brian knows he's needed. Brian knows I wouldn't be here without him. He doesn't have the ego or, I don't know -- just basically the ego needing to feel like he's out there promoting himself or anything like that. I know, my family knows, he knows, his family knows, the friends around me, the people that are close to me know his wisdom, his advice. I mean, I think also just in hearing him talk, he doesn't just help me with tennis, he's made me a better person. Hearing the same voice, it's not always about the same thing. He'll help me with just being happier about anything. I talk to him about some of my relationships, with friends, with girlfriends, whatever. Just in living quite a few more years, as you noticed in his gray hairs, he's just learned a ton of things that I haven't. It's similar to a parent where at first you don't want to listen to them, then as you get a little older, you start realizing they know a lot more than you and they're almost always right. With Brian it took me a while to accept that. So maybe it's a good thing I started working with him when I was 11 because at first I probably didn't want to listen to him. Then you get a little older. Wait, he was right about that. Get a little older. He was right about that, too. Finally gotten to the point where I understand that he's generally right and I pretty much take everything to heart. He's also not -- like I said, he doesn't have an ego. If I talk to him about it, he tells me something, I don't think that's right for me. We're different people in some ways. If he tells me something that works for him, I say, You know what, I can't do it that way, I'm not going to do it that way, I'm not that same type of person. We talk about it. We kind of decide what's best for me, what's best for him. We have a relationship where we can talk about those kind of things. Some coaches don't feel that with a player. A guy sitting in a hospital room, cracking you up when you have a broken neck, it takes a pretty special person. He is an extremely special person. I never would have had this kind of success without him. If he keeps me with a positive perspective and he's able to do it for this long, I don't see any reason why it's going to stop for the rest of my career. I also hear all the rumors and the bloggers and people talking about why wouldn't James get a new coach every time I'm in a slump, every time I lose one match or I seem to have like a little brain cramp on the court or something. They have no idea where I would be without him. I mean, they would never have known the name James Blake to blog about it or talk about it if it wasn't for Brian. I would be some bratty kid that probably burned out of tennis in college. I'm happy they are able to talk about me but I wish they would understand how important Brian has been to me. Q. You said when you got to the locker room, the first text message was from Bob? Do you get a ton of text messages after a win like this? JAMES BLAKE: It's funny you should ask. My pocket has been vibrating just about ever since you guys have been talking to me. I would have tried to kind of sneak it, but I think you would have seen me reading them all. It's such a great feeling to know when I come off, it's actually funny because sometimes I don't get many now from a normal win in a tour event. Used to be such a big deal. It's, again, one of those things that's flattering because people expect you to win. I win a quarterfinal match in a tour event, I get a couple texts. You won, right, good job. It used to be I win a first-round match, and every one of my friends saying, I can't believe you won, great job, it's a great job. It's a compliment now to know that it's somewhat expected. It's the same as people saying it's a slump when you're still 9 in the world, it's something that is a compliment to know how much you've accomplished. But a Davis Cup win, I still get plenty of texts. I think I'm going to have to go read quite a few right now. But it's a great feeling to know people are watching - there it goes again - that people are watching and they care about me and they're on the edge of their seats, too. TIM CURRY: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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