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DAVIS CUP FIRST ROUND: SWITZERLAND v USA

March 6, 2009

James Blake

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

S. WAWRINKA/J. Blake
3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6

TIM CURRY: Questions, for James, please.

Q. Just talk a little bit where you thought the match turned. You played a pretty solid first set. Second set, he seemed to pick up his level of play.
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, he served a lot better. My serve started being erratic. He was doing a good job when I was making first serves. Anytime he got his racquet on it, seems it was getting it back and putting it in play. When he was serving, a lot of first serves he hit hit their mark, were either aces or service winners.
I don't think I put enough pressure on his second serve to make him think about those first serves enough. He put a ton of pressure on my first serve just by making a whole lot of 'em. Maybe I was going for too much. I don't know.
I just need to figure out why I was missing so many.

Q. Talk a little bit about what seemed to be a change of tactic at one point where you started coming in a bit more.
JAMES BLAKE: Well, that was kind of the game plan the whole time, trying to attack him, take time away. If I wasn't doing it at any point in the match, that probably means I was just playing too tentative.
That's something that if I'm doing that, if I notice I'm not coming into net enough, I'm not finishing points up at net, probably not playing my best tennis, and it's time to address that.
If there was a time when I wasn't doing that, it probably was not intentional.

Q. Talk about going out first, just whether it's pressure or what to be out there the first guy in a match like this.
JAMES BLAKE: It's tough to say. I mean, we play matches where we're first up in a day session, first up at night, second match. We play so many different times of the day throughout the whole year, I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference.
Andy has done a great job starting us off in the past. I haven't had this opportunity in a while. In theory, it should be easier because you know exactly what time you're walking out, what time you're starting. You don't have to kind of gauge when you should eat or what you should be doing for warmup when there's still a match on the court. You know what time to do everything.
So I should have come out ready, as ready as I could have been. I did my best. I prepared the way I should. Just wasn't my day.

Q. James, did Wawrinka play as you expected him to? For a gold medal doubles-winning guy on a fast court, didn't come in a lot?
JAMES BLAKE: He didn't come in a lot, but he served great, which on a fast court is going to be pretty effective. I think that was probably the biggest thing. I like to get looks at second serves and take rips and move in on those. He didn't give me a ton of opportunities, taking me out of the those service games by making so many first serves. That was very effective on a fast court.
Another thing he did well, although he didn't come into net, he was doing a great job of taking my pace and moving the ball still, not just kind of floating it. A lot of times I'd hit good second-serve returns, guys are going to float it a little more. He stood on the baseline and ripped. On a fast court, I guess you got to do that. He did it very effectively today.

Q. Patrick mentioned you had been dealing with a little bit of an ankle problem. Anything with your movement today?
JAMES BLAKE: No. I had an ankle problem the last few weeks. It was fine today. No, no problem at all.

Q. Over the course of a long match, three-out-of-five, how much does it wear on you when you're aware you're getting opportunities for second serves, you're not taking advantage of your chances?
JAMES BLAKE: Well, that's frustrating. In a tiebreaker, in a one-set match, in a two-set match, in a five-set match, in a 10-set match. It's frustrating. When you get looks, opportunities, you want to take advantage of those. That's going to be the biggest difference in matches like this, it hinges on one or two points.
In the first set, I think he had one or two breakpoints. Didn't convert them. I had one or two and converted.
Second set, you know, it just comes down to who converts those big points a little bit more. You want to give yourself those opportunities. The more opportunities you have, obviously the better your chances.
If you can just be real solid on those points and convert your chances, you're gonna come out on top more times than not.

Q. You have to wait till Sunday. Would you like the chance to come back and redeem yourself then or for it to be over?
JAMES BLAKE: I don't care how we get to three. If we get to three, I'm happy. We've had opportunities where we've gotten to three on Saturday. This time we'll have to go to Sunday. If Andy clinches on Sunday, I'm really happy. If I clinch it on Sunday, I'm really happy. As long as the team gets to three, that's always our goal throughout this weekend.
We really are a team that just cares about that. Doesn't look back on a year and say, I won this many matches, this person won that many matches or lost that many matches. In 2007 we did it as a team. We don't care who won each match. We got there.
This one's no different. I feel pretty down right now about letting the team down. But that's what's great about a team event, is they can pick me up. I hope they do. They've done it many times before. You know, I just want to do everything I can to prepare and be ready for Sunday if they need me to be the one that steps in and win a fifth match.
My body feels good. I'm be ready to go. Mentally I'll be in a good frame of mind. I'll just beat myself up for a few more hours today, then I'll put it behind me and worry about Sunday.

Q. Not a bad time to have a team like the Bryan brothers playing doubles, is it?
JAMES BLAKE: It hasn't been a bad time for the last five years that they've been playing for us. It's always great to have them as that match on Saturday, where Andy and I can hopefully kick back, have a pretty relaxing hit, watch them do their thing.
You know they're going to be prepared. You know they're going to be so energetic and ready to go. That's going to give us our best chance for a win. I don't know the stat. I think we tested Tim the other day, how many times the U.S. wins when we wins the doubles point. It's pretty impressive. If they can get it done tomorrow, you know, I like our chances again.
We couldn't ask for a better team to have in that position on Saturday. Just energize, talent-wise, record-wise, they're pretty darn good.

Q. Describe the crowd here in Birmingham, and compare to it other Davis Cup venues.
JAMES BLAKE: They took a little while to warm up. Once they got warmed up, they were pretty loud. It was a good crowd to play in front of.
One of the better things about Davis Cup is you feel like even if you're down, you're never out of it because the crowd can turn on one big point, one great rally, one great game. They can really keep you involved. You got your coach sitting right there, your captain. You have your whole team supporting you.
Birmingham definitely kept me in this match. Wish I could have done a little more to get a win. But I know they'll pick Andy up, too. Andy will feed off them. He's a pretty emotional player out there. He loves getting plenty of energy from the crowd.

Q. James, you seemed to be bothered by some calls. Did those stick with you a little bit?
JAMES BLAKE: No. I actually don't even remember any specific ones. There's always a lot of close calls. When you don't have Hawk-Eye, it's tough, 'cause everyone that's calling is human. Everyone's made mistakes. I'm sure there were mistakes made out there. Maybe they went both ways. I have no idea.
I actually off the top of my head cannot remember one specific call. You know, as soon as you do, you maybe say your piece, have Patrick say his piece, you move on. The point's over. Nothing you can do to change it.
Without Hawk-Eye, you can't do anything about it. No matter how much you yell, scream, argue, rant, you're not going to change the umpire's mind. Might as well just go back and play and win the points you can control.

Q. Hawk-Eye is not a part of Davis Cup competition or is it in some venues?
JAMES BLAKE: I don't know.
TIM CURRY: It's only been used in the finals. It can be, but thus far it's only been used in the finals.

Q. James, I know you mentioned before that, as was pointed out, you haven't been the first on in a while. You haven't fared too well in that position, have you?
JAMES BLAKE: I have no idea. I can't even remember the first time I was in the first match.
TIM CURRY: Robredo. He beat the No. 6 player in the world the last time he was first out. Spain, 2007, quarterfinals, last time James played first. The U.S. is 3-0 when James plays first.

Q. James, you talked about beating yourself up for a few hours. Talk about mentally what you do to sort of get something like this out of your system and get refocused.
JAMES BLAKE: Well, here, this is totally different than a normal tournament. I said it before, the highs and lows of Davis Cup are accentuated more than anything you do on the normal tour.
On the normal tour, I'd probably go off and be alone for a while. My real close friends to know to stay away from me at least a couple hours after a loss. My coach knows the same. I kind of think what I could have done differently. I kind of give myself at least a few hours to just go over it in my head.
Then once that's done, you realize that there's nothing you can do. There's no point in dwelling on it. It's not going -- you can't go back in time and change it. All you can do is learn from it. You think about what you went over in your head for those two or three hours, know what going forward you can change.
Here, though, it's going to be a little different. I'm going to finish up here, eat some lunch, go out and hopefully watch Andy pick the team up the way he's done so many times. That's going to change my mood a lot quicker than it normally would if I was sitting at home by myself.
That's part of the great thing about Davis Cup, is you get to have your team pick you up. If he doesn't, then maybe we'll commiserate together and you have someone to feel your pain.
Either way you're going to be helped out by your team. You have your captain behind you. You have plenty of friends and family here that are going to pick me up. They know for at least a couple hours to give me a little space.

End of FastScripts

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