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PILOT PEN TENNIS PRESENTED BY SCHICKAugust 25, 2007James BlakeNEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How do you feel about your play today? JAMES BLAKE: Pretty good. I mean, I won a title. Can't feel too bad about anything. Felt like I didn't serve great in the first set but when you're playing well enough to win in the finals you're doing something right. Felt confident again. That's a great feeling going into the US Open. Feeling like your going into every match no matter who you're against feeling like you can win and you're going to put yourself in a position to win. Q. What were the emotions like playing against Mardy today? JAMES BLAKE: I think we were both a little nervous at the start. We haven't played in a match that actuality counts for a couple year for something like this, so this might be bragging rights for a while. But it's tough because you really want to see him doing well, too. You just go out there and try to do your best and win the match, but you don't want to -- definitely never going to get into it and show each other up or anything like that. You're going to do our best and that's it. We're both professional and we both understand what's on the line and both understand that it's our job and that we're still going to be great friends and still going to probably go to dinner tomorrow night. Q. At the end of the match it's usually a cordial handshake. For you guys it was a hug. Why is that? Talk about the emotion after the match. JAMES BLAKE: Because it's not a normal match. It's against someone I know is going to be my friend not just through my tennis career and not just because we happen to be playing against each other, but we're going to be friends forever. I think we're going to be playing golf together. Like he said, I'm terrible and he's actually good. Still going to go out and play some golf together and still hang out and be friends long after tennis, so that's something that's really important to me. One match won't make or break that friendship. Whether or not he had won today or I won to today whether or not we're playing the US Open finals. We kind of joked about that when we were both just starting out on tour playing in Challengers that, you know, one of us needs to do that. One of us is going to do that and we're both going to happy for whoever does well and whoever's doing great we're going to be happy for that person. We kind of joked about the fact that we didn't understand how other guys let whether it's titles or fame or money or anything get between them when they're just friends. We've never let anything like that get between us, and we can go out there and do our best, but it's not going to change the fact that we're friends. Q. It seemed like it was going to be whoever got their service game on track first today and it just happened to be you. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. I definitely felt that way. Against a player like Mardy it's usually tough to come by a break. I got a couple early and gave them right back. That was a little frustrating to me. He's a guy that when he's confident, if his serve is coming in he's very, very difficult to break. One of toughest in the game really. But I think his returns are underrated. I don't know the stats, but I feel like he hammered my second serve and played great on it and put a lot of pressure on me. When he's playing like that he can be so tough to play because he's holding easily and then he's -- if you're not making a lot of first serves then he's putting a ton of pressure on you. You know it's just inevitable that he's going to break eventually. That's what he's playing his best and that's when he's a player that's very dangerous to go deep in a Slam. The way he's playing -- I know his serve wasn't his best today. But if that comes in and starts coming in the way it was the rest of this tournament, the US Open is a tournament that he can really be dangerous in. Q. What changed on your serve? JAMES BLAKE: I don't know. Just a day when it wasn't going in right at the start and started getting a little better toward the end. There's something to be said about the pressure he's putting on my second serve. How effective he was at that point made me think about it. Made me start maybe changing to just try to get a few more in, not going for lines. When I'm doing that and start aiming, it's the same thing for pitchers, or what I remember from pitching. If you start aiming you're going to miss a lot more instead of just throwing. Instead of just going up there and serving I was aiming and maybe trying to guide them a little too much instead of just worrying about hitting them. That's something that's effective. Guys can put pressure on you different ways. A guy like Karlovic puts pressure on you just by holding so easily and Mardy puts pressure on you by really attacking your second serve. Q. Talk about that breakpoint at I think 4-3 in the second set. You just got broken and you won that game to hold. Can you just talk about the importance of that one serve? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. That was huge. Like I said, he was putting so much pressure on my second serve that I really wanted to make a first serve. That was all I was saying to myself while I was getting the ball and getting the towel, Make a first serve her, make a first serve here. I felt like that was probably my most consistent serve, and if I do make it it's one that can give him trouble. I was going to try to come in and at least get him stretched out to try to get a volley that I can make him move, make him guess the wrong way, and it happened to go even better than I had planned. That's a time when it worked out that I just to went up there and all I wanted to do was make a first serve and -- I wanted to go after it, but all I was saying was, Make the first serve. It went in and it was even better than I expected. It was a great feeling that I made another first serve next point and he made a return error so that let me breathe a little easier and got the next point and before I knew it I was breathing a little sigh of relief. But I knew it wasn't going to be easy in the 5-4 game either. Q. You are at a place in tennis where the only place for you to go up is at a Grand Slam. I mean, you've had two back-to-back quarters. How much does it consume you? Consume might be the wrong word. You know, you've got to give it a lot thought. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I definitely think about it, but I know I have the ability so it's not something that's keeping me up at nights. I very easily with a little bit of luck here or there could have been in the semis or finals a couple years ago. Last year with a slightly different draw I felt like I was playing well enough to be in the semis and finals as well. So I am confident in my abilities, and I know how well I can play -- at the Grand Slams I know I'm fit enough to do well there. Things haven't gone my way. I'm not going to cry about it because I could have also not been playing in 2005 or 2006. I'm happy to be playing, and I try to put those things in perspective. It obviously hurts when I lose and it hurts to not have a semifinals or finals or Grand Slam on my resume, but if I never have one I'm not going to feel like my career was a failure. And if I have one I'm not necessarily going to consider my career a success if I don't feel like I did everything the right way. So I'm confident right now that I'm doing everything I can to prepare for the Majors, and this one has been my favorite for many reasons: The surface, the fans, the proximity to home and everything about it's been great. So I hope I can continue to have this one as my favorite and my best results. I'd love to go further than the quarters, but if I don't and someone steps up and plays a great match and happens to have one of their best days and beats me, then all I can do is tip my cap and get ready for next year. Q. You could easily have been going home on Thursday. Does it give you extra confidence to come through matches like that and then win a title? JAMES BLAKE: It's something that I'm not exactly used to. I don't think I've ever been down 40-Love and come back to win a match, and especially to win a title. It just shows kind of how big a difference confidence can make. A couple years ago or whenever I have little lulls where I'm not so confident I feel like those matches, it just seems like that guy's going to make a first serve and you're out of it. You're already out of it and in the locker room. When you're confident it just seems there's ways that things happen. You make a couple shots and before you know it you're in it and turning things around and the other guy is getting upset and down on himself and not as confident as you are. To get through that and then play as well as I did the last three matches since then, it's exciting and it's just not every match is going to go simple. Not every match is going to be 2-2, 3-3 and all go smoothly as planned, and you got to be ready for the ups and downs in ever match. That one was as far down is as I could have been to come back and win, but it gives you confidence to know you can win a match any way. You're not just a good frontrunner and someone that can win a match when everything is going right. Even when they're not going right for a little while you know you can turn it around. Q. Arlen Kantarian said that Americans had to learn to be an underdog in tennis. Is that players or fans or a little bit of both? JAMES BLAKE: I'd say the players are pretty happy with the results we've had. I mean, we'd love to be doing better but I know Andy's been in three Grand Slam finals since he won in '03 at the Open, and it just happens that we're playing in an era of Roger Federer. I think the we're so used to the era of Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang that they're used to seeing Americans dominate the sport the same way we feel like we've dominated basketball for so long and then we haven't won the gold medal last time and we've got a German MVP and a French MVP of the finals. The sport's become more globalized and the think the fan have to understand that it's going to be very difficult for any country to dominate a sport. I mean, right now it happens to be dominated but one person so you could say Switzerland is dominating, but they're not in the Davis Cup anymore. I feel like America has a very balanced team and a great chance to win the Davis Cup. So I feel like we're doing great as a country, and if the fans don't appreciate that I'm sorry, but we're doing our best. I hope they see that and I hope they see that the globalization of the sport and how many more players are involved with the rise in the money and the exposure. Q. Is it more exciting to have another win in your home state of Connecticut? JAMES BLAKE: It's very exciting. There aren't that many place I've won twice. There are a couple. Like I said, before when you feel this confidence it comes from somewhere. It came from how well I played the last couple weeks to be on the American hard courts, but also for the fans being here for me. So many of my friends being here. Getting to be in my own bed driving my own car up here and just enjoying all will the perks of being at home. Q. Two years ago you were kind of a Cinderella story to win this. This year you're one of the favorites. Can you contrast the emotion of the two titles? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. It's very different. I think things have changed a lot in the couple years. I'm definitely someone that tries to keep it all in stride. Whether it's a low or high time, I always talk about that with my coach. Things were very bleak in '04, but you try to make the best of it and enjoy yourself . When things are too high, and I had a great week in Cincinnati and here. I don't want to go in with a huge head to the US Open and start feeling like I'm, you know, on top of world and I deserve to win, because guys will knock you down quickly. I try not to let myself get too high or low. In '05 I was definitely emotional because that was only my second win on tour and only my first in three years. So it was very emotional then but now it's still emotional but I'm making sure to temper that and concentrate on the US Open next week. Q. You mentioned Roger Federer. I just wanted to know how you respond to people saying that the reason of your failures against Roger Federer are more mental? JAMES BLAKE: I'd like them to look at his record. I wish I could say that. I wish it was just -- I wish I had the same confidence as those people do in my ability. I have a ton of confidence in my ability, but I also know that I've played well against Roger at times and he's still found a way to beat me. I'm not embarrassed in any way to be 0-7 against him because I know I have the ability to beat top players. I've beat, Nadal, Davydenko, Roddick. So it's not like I'm awed by anyone on the other side of net at that time. But after it match it seems like he's found a way to beat me. At times that's serving great and at times that's hitting his backhand great, and he just finds a way. I felt like I played a great match last year at the US Open. I thought I played pretty well in Shanghai and he found a way to beat me. If it was mental I know I have a great coaching mind of Brian Barker behind me to find a way to solve it. But there aren't a lot of people that have solved his puzzle. I think there's two people that have beaten him twice or more since 2004, and that says a lot about him and how incredible and how dominate he's been, because he's played all of them and only Nadal and Cañas, and Cañas has only beaten him twice. It's not like anyone is having a lot of success against him. I wish it was something mental I could get over and just picture myself winning and it's going to happen. But this is -- our sport is played inside the lines and there's a lot of athleticism and everything else involved. His athleticism, his abilities are just, I think, superior to everyone at this time. That doesn't mean I don't think I can't beat him the next time I play him. Q. You said some very poignant things about your family on the court and you're obviously aware of the fact that you are a role model. How much does that impact when you're in the heat of the moment and it's a tough point and you realize that there are young kids in the stands and everything? What's that like for you? Do you keep that in your mind? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, definitely. As I joked about with my coach I was a brat when I was a kid and I want to give kids a better example to see than someone out there that's winning or losing that's having a bad attitude and throwing a racquet that's being a brat and just kind of not appreciative of how lucky they are to be playing and doing what they're doing. So I want to give a better example. I also understand the role I'm in being an African American in a sport that's not always looked at as having a lot of African Americans fans. I understand I might have other fans that other players don't. I want to make sure that I give them the best example possible. Having my family there, knowing that they're around me and in my box it gives me a sense of relief. Because if I'm in a big moment and in a big point and I happen to lose it I still have my family that loves me and it gives me a reason to still go out there. I'm a competitor so I still do beat myself up. Q. I was also wondering, I always look over at your mom and like, how much of having for mom in the stands changes the way you play? JAMES BLAKE: It's great. She pretends to act calm but I know she's not. I know her stomach is churning just as much as mine or more so. But she's does a great job of acting while she's there and seeming like that's not nervous. I think it has to do with the fact that she's seen so many matches. It means so much to me that she's at so many of my highs and lows and been through them all with me, and there's something to be said for, you know -- I don't know the feeling yet, but so many people tell me about parenthood. That you're as happy or sad as your kids and kind of live and die by them. She's seen that with me, and that's another reason I keep it a little tempered. I don't want her every getting too down when I lose a match. I want her to be as happy as she can be. Q. Can you generally speak about your first round match against Michael Russell in New York? JAMES BLAKE: Sure. He's a great player. I've played him a few times in Challengers years ago, but I haven't played him probably since '02 maybe, '01. Guy gets a ton of balls, very fit, and he's going to make me work hard. So I'm excited about the next two days of rest and then I'll be completely refreshed and ready to go against him. He's also one of my good friends on tour, so I'm glad I got a perfect warm up here against playing my best friend on tour. Mike's another great friend of mine. So it'll be another match where I have to focus and not think about that while I'm on the court and still know that we'll be friends afterwards. End of FastScripts |
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