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WIMBLEDON

June 22, 2010

James Blake

LONDON, ENGLAND

R. HAASE/J. Blake
6-2, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I guess first of all, tell me about how you feel you played today, and did you feel as though you were getting into the match at a point?
JAMES BLAKE: I didn't -- well, I felt like my returns were terrible. That's usually something that's pretty good about my game, especially attacking second serves and getting my racquet on enough first serves to put some pressure on him.
I didn't do that. When I did, my breakpoint percentage I think was zero, so that's not gonna cut it when I had, I don't know, eight or nine chances and couldn't convert on any.
He made a lot of first serves; I'll give him credit there. But I didn't do well enough when I had chances. I could blame a lot of time off for that, for not playing confidently on those big points, not playing aggressive, not feeling as comfortable.
You know, that's something that could easily happen from taking time off. That's still no -- in my mind, that's no excuse for playing that way.
You know, to be honest, it's almost embarrassing to go out and play a Grand Slam match like that. Maybe it says to me that I came back too soon, or maybe I'm just too far away where I think I need to be.

Q. Physically, how are you at this point?
JAMES BLAKE: The knee is not great. If it doesn't get better soon, I'm not sure how much longer I want to play in pain.
I'm doing my best. We're doing everything we can. It's just getting pretty frustrating. We're trying everything, so hopefully soon we'll find the solution and make it so it's better.
I just took ten weeks off. I thought that was gonna do it and be the answer. We did everything we could rehab-wise correctly, I think. It was feeling great in Eastbourne, and then had a little setback. Now it's not feeling great again.
Again, no excuse for the way I played today. You know, I played with this for quite a while in a bit of pain, and now the reason I want to take time off is I didn't want to continue playing in pain.
It's back, so that's not ideal.

Q. When did it flare up, James? When was the first time you had a problem with it?
JAMES BLAKE: Last Wednesday in Eastbourne.

Q. The original injury.
JAMES BLAKE: Year and a half ago. I don't even know. Just gradually got worse and worse until it get to a point where I just couldn't take playing at 80%. I can't beat these guys at 80%. I can't beat a lot them at 100% on a given day. So to think that I'm gonna compete with the top level of the game at 80% is just silly.
That's why I needed to take the time off and get myself healthy and get back to feeling 100%. You know, I really think it did work.
Now we're dealing with something new in my knee, although it feels similar. From the ultrasound we had last week, it's something a little different. Maybe it's just getting old. I don't know.

Q. What other options were you given before you took the ten weeks off? Did they go in and scope it?
JAMES BLAKE: No, it was basically keep playing in pain and get to the point where it requires surgery or -- you know, I've never taken an antiinflammatory or painkiller in my life. They have asked me to do that; I didn't do that.
Maybe I am hurting myself by not doing that. I don't know. It's just something I've kind of always stuck to. Otherwise, it's just rest. That's what they said. Need to rest and shut it down.
The other option I had was get that PRP treatment, which I did. That's where they take your blood, spin it to get the -- the reason it's PRP is platelet-rich-plasma, the stuff that's known for healing injuries and joints and everything.
So they take that, spin it down, and then inject that into the inflamed area. You know, whether or not that helped, I don't know. Figured couldn't hurt. Supposed to get you back on the court quicker. I don't know if it did.
I mean, I was back in ten weeks. My trainer and other people say that that kind of tendonitis could last a lot longer and could keep going. But I was back and felt good, and basically now, right next to it, another -- the tendon has been damaged right next to it.

Q. So the doctor said about surgery, if you elected to have it you could be out, what, six months, more?
JAMES BLAKE: I don't know, I didn't really get into it. I didn't want to deal with surgery. At this point in my career, I don't know if surgery is a viable option.

Q. When you say you're thinking of taking time, are you talking about taking more weeks off or something more permanent?
JAMES BLAKE: No idea right now. I want to play this summer. I want to see what happens there.
So, you know, obviously now I've got two weeks where I'm not playing a match. I'll see how it reacts to new treatments. I'll see what happens, and then I want to play the summer.
If that means playing in pain, I'm gonna play in pain. If it means I'm back to being healthy, then I have a feeling I'm gonna want to continue. I'm gonna want to get back to the way I know I can play.
If it's continuing to play in pain, I'll reassess after the Open and see if I want to continue that. If I need to, after the Open, take the rest of the year off and then see if I can start fresh in 2011.
I don't know. It's a bit of an unknown. A lot of people think the unknown is fun. Some people think it's scary. I think it's a little bit of both. I think it's an opportunity.
If my life is gonna change after the Open, then I'll have to be anxious and see what comes next.

Q. And you don't believe in antiinflammatories because?
JAMES BLAKE: Something since I was a kid. Sort of been a bit of a health nut and thought they were something that can mess up your stomach in the long run. You can get too used to taking them and build up more and more of a tolerance and you're dependant on them.
I know rationally that doesn't make sense, because I don't feel like I have the addictive-type personality and don't have any other vices like that or anything. But it's just something I always thought.
I way I usually feel is I like knowing what's going on in I body. If my shoulder hurts, I want to know if I'm making it worse every time I serve; if I my knee hurts, I want to know if I'm causing it more harm. I don't want anything to be masked. That's kind of the way I always felt.
And also the way I feel is if it's too much pain that I can't take it and I can't play, then I shouldn't be playing. An antiinflammatory shouldn't change that.

Q. You've been through some tough times before. The last year hadn't been great. You had the toe. I mean, obviously through it all, you've sort of said you still like being out here and enjoy playing tennis. Has that changed at all in the last few weeks? Can you talk about that?
JAMES BLAKE: I still love the competition. No doubt in my mind about that. Until the last point out there I was fighting and I thought I had a chance and I thought I could come back and get my foot back in the door and see if kind of a little bit of better form would come back. I had opportunity middle to late in the third set to get a break.
So I love the competition. The only thing that maybe has changed is it's tougher practice-wise, but it's -- it used to be for me I was pretty single-minded in terms of wanting to just get out and work. Whether it's hitting a million forehands, hitting a million serves, doing running, whatever it was, I wanted to keep doing it.
If it's gonna make me better to hit for longer, I'm gone hit for longer. Something like this, an overuse injury, it's a tough balance you have to find. Like I said, I want to be out there hitting, but I might be doing more harm than good to.
So it makes it hard to decide. Do I want to practice longer? Do I want to take this time off? Do I need to rest? And then I come out, and I don't feel like -- I don't have that same confidence I do when I've hit millions and millions of balls, where I've gone out there and I know I've done the work.
Here, sometimes I feel like I've done too much resting. It's great to feel fresh a little bit, but I don't know if that's for me. I have a tough time, because, again, since I was a kid, it's my mentality. I want to work harder than the next guy.
If you have an injury like I do, you can't do that work. So it's become tougher, because I want to practice more and I want to get in the gym more, and I can't.
So that makes everything a little tougher and frustrating.

Q. When are you feeling pain? On and off the court? Are there certain movements?
JAMES BLAKE: The quick reaction and loading on my right leg, so especially return of serve. When you don't know where the ball is going and you make that quick first step and push off, that's probably the most sharp pain that I feel.
Otherwise, it's sort of -- it's okay usually when I wake up. Once I put a little bit of pounding on it, it gets real tender and then just pretty consistently sore.
And then any sort of pushing off will flare it up even more.

Q. Have you seen McEnroe's book, Patrick?
JAMES BLAKE: No. Heard he had a book signing in Fairfield. I think Brian and my mom went. But I haven't seen it.

End of FastScripts

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