|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
AUSTRALIAN OPENJanuary 19, 2008James BlakeMELBOURNE, VICTORIA THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. JAMES BLAKE: Please let it be about my five-set record. Q. You fought your way out of too many tougher situations than that. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, that was -- that's got to be my biggest comeback, I would say: Down two sets to Love, two sets to one, two breaks against a guy that was getting a lot of free points on his serve; 4-1 in the breaker, 5-3 in the breaker. Just seemed like every time there was a mountain to climb. Couldn't have been a better feeling than to accomplish what I did and come back and play so well and feel like I was fresh physically, and mentally stayed focused the whole time, even when I was down. Had I lost the match, hopefully could have come off and said, I did my best. You know, some of them now are turning my way. It's a good feeling. Q. What was your conversation with yourself at 1-4 down? Your body language was a little iffy, and I don't think too many people liked your chances there. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I don't think a lot of people like my chances, but I always do. No matter what my body language says, I know I've been criticized about that in the past or whatever. If I get down on myself I start getting pretty angry and frustrated. But that's a little bit of the perfectionist in me. Being frustrated that I didn't take advantage of opportunities before that or gave away points or anything like that. I still felt like that 4-1 game was huge, though. Same way I was serving at 4-1 in the fifth. There's a huge difference between 4-2 and 5-1. 5-1 you feel pretty comfortable, you can go after your shots. You can feel little more relaxed. At 4-2 you're thinking, No, I can't give this away. I was up big and now it's just one break. I've got to be really careful. I felt like he might have gotten a little bit too careful. You can't -- I don't think can you do that at this level. I did my best to take advantage of that. I actually think I kind of returned the favor on my two break points, or set points in the fourth, at 4-5. Felt like I played those a little careful, and he took advantage of that. Then in the breaker, I don't think anyone would say I played that breaker carefully, especially after those returns at 5-4 and 5-All. That's the way I have to play. Had I missed those, I know I would have been criticized for playing too aggressive. That's my game style, and that's what gives me the best chance to win. Today it worked; tomorrow or the next day maybe it won't, but that's the way I have to play to give myself the best chance to win. It feels great when I do get a win. Q. What happened with Santoro at the US Open, did that any bearing on what you did? JAMES BLAKE: No, I'm -- I mean, that was a great feeling to get my first five-set win, but this one was totally different. They're all, I think, going to be different. There's no physical issues with me. It didn't seem like there were physical issued with him like there were with Santoro. The crowd was in my corner both times, but maybe not quite so much here as in my home country and at the US Open. It was just a little different feeling, but I was just thinking about getting the win. The fact that I played so well to kind of get myself out of trouble in the fourth set there, I wasn't going to lose that momentum and I wasn't going to let it got other way. That was a good feeling. I think in the US Open I lost the fourth set, so this is definitely different. Just going in there and feeling fresh and feeling like I needed to make him work in the fifth set. Q. The breaker, were you telling yourself consciously to go for it? I mean, you ripped those returns, as you said. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, definitely. That's the way I feel like I have to play. The biggest thing is not hesitating. Just telling myself, Yeah, I'm going to go for these and live with the consequences if I miss it, and that's just what I did. I was going to go after it. He had been getting some free points serving out wide to my backhand like there at 5-4. Wanted to take a guess and see if I could get on one of them, and I did. And if he had burned me up the T, then so be it. He outthought me or played better or whatever. Seemed like in the first couple sets he was guessing right on everything and I just seemed to be guessing wrong. Part of the reason for my frustration was it just seemed like I couldn't pick the right spot at all. And in the breaker I just felt like the momentum was going with me when I was coming back. I had to go for my shots, because he's too good to just let me just push balls in the court and keep it in the middle of the court and kind of float balls deep and have him miss. He wasn't going to do that, so I had to take it on myself, and if I get a chance I'm going to take it. Q. As you mentioned, the five-set record is behind you now. The Davis Cup title obviously was a great milestone. Is cracking the quarterfinal ceiling in a Slam now the next most important frontier for you in your career? JAMES BLAKE: Well, the Davis Cup was huge; the five-set record I don't really think about too much. I'm not worried about it. But getting through to the quarterfinals, again, it's something that could be just baed on your draw. Could be anything. Could get a bad night's sleep, could get sick. Anything like that could get happen. It's not something I'm going to be that concerned about, but it's a great feeling right now to be in the fourth and giving myself a chance. If I keep giving myself chances, one of these times I will break through. The way my confidence is right now I think I have the ability. But if it never happens, if I happen to meet Roger in the quarters every single time and he's playing his best tennis, it might be just one of those things that's not to be. Now I've got an opportunity gets Cilic. I saw a little bit of his match. It looked like he was playing some great tennis. I know it's not going to be easy no matte what. There's never going to be an easy fourth round of a Slam. Looking forward to getting to the quarters hopefully, and then never know. It will be a really good feeling to get through to that final weekend. Q. How much of these matches are basically about mentally and physically wearing the other guy down? JAMES BLAKE: I think today was more so than some of the others. I know he had a five setter before this. Maybe his legs weren't as fresh in the fifth set. That's definitely the way it seemed with the amazing gets he was getting in the first two sets. In the fifth set it seemed like even though he was getting to the balls he didn't have as much on them at the end. Maybe just being a step slower, half a step slower, not really being able to hit those effectively and, I feel, giving me a chance to hit a few more winners. I don't think there's too many guys that it's very easy to wear down. I think the game style Sebastien plays and how much he has to run, it maybe made it possibly today. The fact that he had a five setters and three-set doubles match yesterday might have had an influence. But it's a great feeling. I don't feel like I'm going to get tired physically or mentally. I think playing so many matches in my career it's something you can't substitute. You can't just start the tour and say you're going to be mentally tough. It takes a rare breed to do that. The Rafael Nadals that are out there doing it at 19 and 20 years old, it's one in a million. Maybe even greater odds than that to have something like that. So for me I feel good about the fact that I've played so many that I gave myself the chance to not break down mentally. As people said, I was getting angry. I was getting upset at myself. I was debating with myself or chastising myself. Whatever. But always it was right there after the point, and then the next point I was ready to go. That's something I probably wasn't able to do when I was first on tour. It's good to know that I have that in me, and now maybe other people will believe me when I say that. It's a good feeling have the results to back it up. Q. How does two sets to Love, coming back from that, you've never done that before, how does that feel different to any other? How does it feel? JAMES BLAKE: It's really great, especially with as much as I talk about it with my coach, Brian Barker. We talk about ups and downs in every single match. Almost before every single match that we play, that these guys are so good that there's rarely going to be a match that goes smooth sailing, up a break early, win the first set, up a break early, win the second set. There's going to be ups and downs. Whether you're up two sets to Love, down two sets to Love, all it takes is playing 5% better than your opponent when you're down two sets to Love and you're going to win that set. You keep playing 5% better and you're going to win that next set. Keep playing a little bit better and you're going to win those. That's all it takes to change that momentum. You can't get too down on yourself down two sets to Love, and you can't think it's over when you're up to sets to Love. We've talked about that so many times. I've been able to close out the past few matches before that in three sets and not getting ahead of myself. This one, being down two sets to Love, same thing. Just not letting that affect me. Knowing if I can just play a little bit better than him -- there's no way in men's tennis these days to just limp home. You can't just keep balls in and eventually you're going to just kind of limp to the finish line. You still have to keep your foot on the accelerator and keep pushing guys to win. I know that now. I know that I have to do that when I'm up two sets to Love; and if I'm down two sets to Love, there's no reason to panic. Just hopefully makes it a long day. Q. Did you see any of Andy's match at all? JAMES BLAKE: I did, quite a bit of it. First two, two-and-a-half sets. Looks like he was playing unbelievable. He's a young guy, so maybe we have a lot more of that to expect in the future. Maybe it was his best match, I don't know. If he keeps playing like that he's going to be a force, for sure. I don't think it was Andy's best day of his career, but from the looks of it in the first couple sets and from what I heard from some of the other coaches and players, it was just a really high level of tennis. That's great for the fans. I wish, obviously being a little bias, I wish Andy had come through, but hopefully he won't lose any confidence from this and he'll be back and ready to go for Davis Cup. Q. Were you aware of how much Kohlschreiber dictated from the baseline? JAMES BLAKE: I mean, I've only played him on grass and the courts were really slippery then. It was tough for me to know expect what to expect from that match. The way I saw him hitting, it seemed like he was a guy with nothing to lose and a lot to prove. He had a lot of confidence. I know he won last week, so he just looked like he was ripping and going after balls and had absolutely nothing to lose. And that's a great feeling, you know. He's going to probably feel it less and less as he gets ranked higher and higher. But at 20-something in the world, he definitely feels that way against an Andy Roddick. There's still going to be a lot of guys that feel that way against him, hopefully soon with the way his career is going. If he can keep that up and keep playing with that same attitude, he's going to be very, very dangerous. Q. You just said Kohlschreiber had nothing to lose and a lot to prove. Do you ever feel that way still? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, definitely. Whatever I'm ranked now, 12, 13, that means 12 or 13 guys out there that are expected to beat me. If I play one of them then I probably have nothing to lose, but it's a little different when you've been out here for a while. And for me, I feel like I've proven myself once getting up there and then falling way off and getting back to kind of the - hopefully - the top ranks of the game. So I feel like I've proved myself. But every day is a new way of proving yourself. Today was getting a five-set win coming back from two sets to Love. There's always things to prove, and whether you've beaten someone two times, three times, four times, five times, you still want to prove that you're better than them on that day. It's tougher having nothing to lose, but you also have learned how to deal with whatever situation comes your way. I feel like I've been lucky enough to learn from -- everyone says it's easy to learn from losses, and I feel like I've learned from a lot of losses. But I also feel like I learn a lot from wins. Today I'm going to learn a lot from this match. Q. You donated your shirt to the crowd. That was something you don't usually do. Only a special occasion? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I haven't donated too many. I'm lucky enough Nike gives me enough. I'm able to do that once in a while. No, I don't do that every time. It was just such a great feeling. The crowd was excited, and I was just throwing stuff in there, and the shirt was the next thing to come off. I hope someone enjoys it. I hope they wash it first if they're going to use it. But it's a good shirt. It was brand new before that. Q. Have you played Cilic before? JAMES BLAKE: I have. I played him in Bangkok, but I'm probably not going to even consider that. He was a totally different player then. That was a year and a half ago and he was so young and so new and probably nervous, and I won relatively easily. But that's not the same player I'm going to play in this next round, because I feel like I played Ancic the same way when he was so young that since then you're playing a totally different player. A player with much more confidence, much more game to back up what they're doing out there. So I won't even really consider that I played him. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|