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AUSTRALIAN OPENJanuary 23, 2008James BlakeMELBOURNE, VICTORIA THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. You met Roger now eight times. How did tonight's match rank? JAMES BLAKE: Same as all the others: it was a loss. I really went in thinking I had a good chance to win, same as every other time I went out there. Came up with the goods when he needed to. I thought I played pretty well. I mean, definitely had chances I could have taken advantage of if I was playing my absolute best. But I don't know if he was playing his best either. But he came up with some of his best at the right times, and that was the difference. Q. What makes him such a difficult opponent? JAMES BLAKE: Just what I said: he comes up with the goods at the right times, he serves well when he needs to, he puts balls in the court when he needs to. As soon as he gets on offense he can hurt you. He has every facet of the game. I mean, I feel like he plays somewhat similar to me, just at a higher level when we play. We both want to look to get our forehands. We're both trying to make a lot of first serves and get in the net when we can, close out points at the net. But he just did it a little better than me today. He's done it a little better than me for the last five years or so now. But I hope he can't be better than me every single time I play him. Next time I'll go in with same attitude: believing I could beat him. I definitely believed I could beat him tonight. Now that it's over, today he was better than me, but next time might be different. Q. The tiebreaker, you were up 2-1, he was getting kind of grumpy, making some mistakes he wouldn't normally make. Do you sense there's a chance, suddenly he comes up with two amazing points? Does it still surprise you after all these years? JAMES BLAKE: Nothing he does surprises me. It frustrates me, but nothing surprises me. I played two unbelievable points at 2-1. I couldn't have hit those balls any harder. Couldn't have put him on his back foot any more. He just flicks his wrist, puts it back to neutral. It's tough to deal with. Really, the only person I ever played that could do that was Andre. And Andre couldn't move the way Roger does. Andre didn't serve the way Roger does. It's just something you have to deal with, and I tried my best after those two points to just put it behind me and go ahead and still take my shots in that tiebreaker and make him come up with those every time. He came up with a good serve at 6-5, and he still -- I don't feel like I gave him anything tonight. I still feel like he beat me. That's all I can do, is go out there and play my best. Today it wasn't my day. Hopefully next time it will be. Q. That said, do you still feel like he's a little more vulnerable here than some slams in the past based on some of his results, errors he's making? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, that's tough to say. I still pick him. He's still my favorite to win the tournament. But until someone unseats him, until someone proves the way kind of Rafael has on clay, until someone does that to him on hard, I pick him as my favorite every time, even if he's not playing well. Like you said, he might have seemed vulnerable tonight until it was 5-6, until it was 2-1 in the tiebreaker, until he was serving for the match. You know, so another kind of aspect of a champion, another attribute, is being able to come up with those big shots at the right times, late in sets and in tiebreakers. So if he didn't have his best day until those times, then coming up with the best, you know, that in my mind makes him a favorite still, because that means he didn't -- he maybe didn't play his best and he still beat the number-whatever-I-am player in the world today. That's pretty impressive. It's frustrating to me, but it's impressive, so he's still a favorite. Maybe he's more vulnerable than the guy who went, whatever, 71-4 a couple years ago. I'd still pick him as the favorite. Q. Offense being considered, do you consider yourself unfortunate or fortunate to play in the age of Federer and sort of be able to test your game against him? JAMES BLAKE: Uhm, hmm, tough question. It's something I'm sure the guys in years past are wondering how their games would match up against him. So at least I know mine clearly doesn't match up very well (smiling). But, you know, I guess I'd say unfortunate. You know, to play -- I don't know how all the guys on the golf tour would say if they feel fortunate to play with Tiger Woods. I would say they're probably very fortunate because of the money they're making. For us, it's frustrating that some of us maybe feel like we could have one or two or more Grand Slams if Roger wasn't around. But, you know, what can you do? It's just the place and era you were born into. You're playing against the best in the world. I can't say that I'm unfortunate. I get too much out of this game. I get too much out of even a loss, which I'm frustrated about right now. But I take too many positives from it to say that I'm unfortunate for being born in this era and getting to play against a great like Roger Federer. I mean, in this era, we're Davis Cup champions, so I'm proud to be a part of the era with Andy Roddick and the Bryan twins. I definitely can't say I'm unfortunate. Q. Can you still take moral victories? Do you get any satisfaction, or do you have to win? JAMES BLAKE: It's tough to say "a moral victory" at this level. I mean, you want to win. That's why you come up. I think Herm Edwards said it: That's way you play the game, is to win. Yeah, I mean, I definitely thought I really good chance tonight. I thought I was playing well. The court suits me well. Night match. Conditions were perfect. Thought I had a good chance. There's no real moral victory. Next time I go out there, I'm still going to feel like I can win. I know it was close. I've been close before. I can't say it's any different now or I feel really any different. I'm just a little frustrated. But I did my best here, so I can't complain too much about it. Q. End of the first set, you missed a forehand you normally would make. Is that a situation you try to make the shot too good knowing the situation? What's happening there? JAMES BLAKE: Possibly knowing the opponent, not the situation. He does that to a lot of guys. Rafael does that to a lot of guys, as well. You get so many balls. That's why I said, I think I'm similar, but maybe not as good. I feel like I get to so many balls and can make a couple shots on the run that makes guys miss. So I know the feeling of doing that to someone else. I guess he did it to me tonight. I missed that 'cause I'm maybe thinking I need to put this in the corner, otherwise I'm going to get passed. I don't want to give him an easy opportunity to pass me when I'm coming in. It's going to lead to errors. You know, you say you're playing bad, but you always have to remember that it's the other guy that's doing that to you. Q. Are you going to see your Giants play in the big game or not? JAMES BLAKE: The deal with Patrick was if I won this tournament, I could go to the Super Bowl. No more. I got to get to Austria Saturday. I'll hopefully be watching it from Austria. They better have ESPN there. Q. It was brought up in the last press conference that Roger could have lost his No. 1 ranking. For a guy who's been in 10 straight major finals, winning eight of them, is there something wrong with the ranking system? JAMES BLAKE: Best player in the world is No. 1. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I don't see too many problems with the ranking system, I mean, since I've been on tour, really. There have been very little modifications. But I said the best player in the world is No. 1. I feel like the second best player in the world is No. 2. It's not really a system you can bluff your way through. You can't bluff the top 10 in the world. You have to win a lot of matches. I think it's fair. I don't know. Q. If Roger had lost this match, Rafa had won the tournament, then Rafa would be No. 1. JAMES BLAKE: That would mean Rafa would have two Grand Slam wins and a Grand Slam final on his record for the year. That sounds like a pretty deserving No. 1 to me, but I don't know. Q. You guys had the huge high with Davis Cup. Because of the system, you have to go back and play again from zero. How do you feel about that, and how tough is it going to be to fire up again? JAMES BLAKE: Let's bring Francesco Ricci Bitti in here (smiling). I think the teams in the finals should have byes in the first round. That would be one possible solution, because to turn around and play so quickly. I mean, my coach, my friends can't believe that I'm already getting ready to go to Davis Cup again, because they feel I should still be celebrating the fact that we just won the Davis Cup, with how exciting, how much drama there is involved, how much emotion we spend on that, to be going back and playing again is just insane. When I talk to other athletes, NBA players, NFL players, they think about what their off-seasons are like, it's just crazy to think that this is -- it's that quick of a turnaround. The other possibility would be to make it every two years, then we actually have a chance to have a year where it's a little bit normal, our schedule's a little bit easier to deal with, then we go in two years. I understand their position that the smaller countries need this for revenue. It just doesn't seem to be gaining any momentum. I feel like we always need to be moving forward or there's going to be a backwards step. I don't know if we're looking at the big picture, the fact that if we fix the system, maybe the small countries can benefit more from the whole system benefitting in the long run. I don't know, maybe that's just me bitter about having to go to Austria in a week. Q. Could you make a short comment what you expect in Austria, how tough it would be? JAMES BLAKE: I guess negate that comment. I'm really looking forward to going to Austria (smiling). I'm just kidding. I love Davis Cup. Don't get me wrong. It's so much fun to be a part of that team. I just feel like it is a quick turnaround from our final in Portland. I know, especially when we're turning around, we're playing a great country. Stefan Koubek, who showed unbelievable tennis here. Especially on clay, he's such a good defender, that's going to be difficult. Melzer has a lot of talent. Werner Eschauer has started playing a lot better. Julian Knowle, a Grand Slam champion in doubles. We're not going to have an easy match away on clay. For the defending champion, that's going to be tough. We know we're in for a battle. As much as I'd like to go spend a lot of time on the golf course right now, that means it's a couple days off and right back to working out on the clay and getting ready for that 'cause I want to be prepared. Q. Have you ever been skiing? JAMES BLAKE: Not since I was about 15 years old. I did a whole lot more falling than skiing. Q. On TV they talked a couple times about how intimidating Federer is. Does that intimidation come to you in any other way than his play? JAMES BLAKE: No. And I think that's something that's very unique about him, is that it comes from his play. A lot of the veterans or retired players are kind of shocked that he is as nice as he is. Honestly, I saw him at dinner last night. We said, Hi, how's it going? The waitress came over and said, Do we need to move you guys apart? No, we don't care. We can be friendly. So he doesn't try to, you know, make himself somewhat unknown or mysterious to the rest of us, what he's doing. He's genuinely a friendly guy. He's just -- I don't know. He seems like one of the guys in the locker room. Then you go out there, he beats the crap out of you, you come back in the locker room and he's one of the guys. I mean, it's not intimidation by him being extremely huge muscular, talking down to anybody, being condescending, having any sort of a huge entourage, keeping him isolated. He's just that good. End of FastScripts |
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