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U.S. OPEN

September 1, 2007

James Blake

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Are you a creature of the night now the last couple of matches?
JAMES BLAKE: Starting to get into my sleep patterns it seems like. But I don't know if I'm used to being up this late. It's kind of tough to wind down afterwards to get into a rhythm getting right to sleep. I'll have to eat something. With how long the match had been I'll probably try to get a massage too and I don't think I'll be in bed before 3:00 and sleep very, very late tomorrow.

Q. Talk about the third set. He said you were lucky to win that set. Do you feel that you were lucky?
JAMES BLAKE: Who was it that said, the more I practice the luckier I seem to get. You know, when I feel confident the way I do right now, I don't really consider a lot of things luck. I try to, you know, you kind of make your own luck. That's what I felt like I did. I know he had chances much. He was serving for the set in the tiebreaker. He made a couple more mistakes that he wasn't making before that. I don't know if that's luck, if that's nerves, if that's him looking up to see what I'm going to do, if he's worried that I'm going to start going for a little more and hitting some winners. I don't know what that is. But I don't remember any let cords or anything or lines hit. I felt like I played a pretty solid breaker.
I don't remember specifically, maybe I did get a lucky shot here or there. But like I said, the harder I work the luckier I think I get.

Q. Are you learning to watch or pay attention beyond knowing what the time of the match is before you?
JAMES BLAKE: I mean, I watched it.

Q. Not so much close attention that you're riveted.
JAMES BLAKE: No. I definitely don't. It's just something that while you're in there -- it's also good in the locker rooms there's a few things going on: There's the Murray match going on and the women's match, college football.
So I don't definitely let my mind get focused on one thing, because if I was watching, let's say my brother play or something, it strains you mentally. I talked to all the guys in my box, and they're just as drained as I am. So I don't let myself do that when I'm watching.
I just kind of see what's going on and watch a little bit of tennis and don't get too emotionally involved in any of them.

Q. What changed, if anything, in between the third set and fourth set, because in that fourth set you just came out and hammered him and sent the crowd home happy.
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. I felt like I was going after my shots. For those first two or three sets it seemed like he guessing right every time and just playing unbelievable defense. I had to just stick with my game plan and keep going for my shots even if he was guessing right and seemed like he could tell when I was moving forward and he could keep the ball low at my feet when I was staying back he could float it deep.
I just kept going for my shots and it seemed like a few times I was guessing right then and catching him wrong-footed and getting a few winners when wasn't really expecting them. Just hitting the same solid shots and they were turning into winners.
That could be from wearing him down a little bit and could be from he just happened to start guessing wrong and I was taking the ball a little bit earlier in the points and dictating a little more. But it just felt like I was being more aggressive and they were being more effective.

Q. A lot of breaks of serve. Mess with your rhythm? Was it tough to get momentum?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it was a little bit. But I feel great about the fact that I really don't think I served that great. And to win a match against a guy like Stefan without serving great is meant I was returning really well.
My serve is such that once I get a little confidence on it and it started starts feeling good I can get rolling and feel like I'm not going to get broken for a long period of time.
So I'm not so worried about it. I'll hit a few extra on the practice court tomorrow maybe, but not a big concern. It's more uplifting the fact I didn't serve well and I won a match in the third round US Open.

Q. Tommy Haas on Monday. What are your feelings?
JAMES BLAKE: He's a great feeling player. We've had some really good matches. We have a ton of great points and a lot of shot making. Both of us just kind of banging and being aggressive and going after our shots. He got me last time and played really well in Paris, and I've had some matches where I've played really well against him.
Hopefully Monday will be another one of those. I know the crowd will be behind me again and I love that feeling and being here in New York. I definitely have that support, so I'm excited about that. He's been as high as 2 in the world, so it's not like he doesn't have talent. He can beat anyone on any given day. He's pushed Federer and Nadal and all the top guys. I'll be ready for a bit of a dogfight on Monday.

End of FastScripts

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