|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
SONY ERICSSON OPENMarch 21, 2012James BlakeMIAMI, FLORIDA N. DAVYDENKO/J. Blake THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. This tournament, it means the retirement of González. I will ask if you are still upset with him because of the Olympics. JAMES BLAKE: He had a great career. You know, I wish him well after his career. Q. Can you just talk about how you're feeling physically and mentally and just kind of how you're getting through the struggles? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, physically actually getting a lot better. Mentally probably tomorrow or the next day I'll feel good about this. Right now I never do. You know, it's a close match and it's a loss. It doesn't feel good right after. But it's a whole lot better than it was three weeks ago, two months ago, even a week ago. You know, a week ago I didn't feel healthy enough to compete in the tournament, and now I'm in there, I'm competing. Granted, I'm losing, but it's getting a lot closer. You know, I haven't played a match like this in a long time, you know, so you feel that in your legs now more than I did beforehand. I think that's just a matter of getting back to being used to this. You can practice as much as you want. There's nothing to really take the place of the pressure of playing a real match. But in the long run this will be good for me. Right now unfortunately I'm frustrated. I wanted to win that match, have a little Saddlebrook battle with Isner. You know, he's playing top‑10 tennis right now and going higher, but it's always fun to play a guy that's up there where you got no pressure against them. So it would have been fun. But, you know, I'll look at this as a positive hopefully in the long run, but a little frustrated. Q. Did you feel after the first set that you were kind of rolling along, 5‑1? How good were you feeling at that point? Or did you realize with Davydenko it's a long match? JAMES BLAKE: I definitely realized that Davydenko is not going to give up. He wouldn't have had the career he had if he wasn't a fighter, a guy that battles back, that works hard, that does a great job and playing offense when he needs to, you know, putting a lot of first serves in the court and just doing what he needs to do to win. I knew even at 5‑1 he was still fighting to get back in the first set. I played a really good service game at 5‑4 to hold, and the way the second set was going we were both holding pretty easily. I knew that was a little strange. I wanted to get a look at his serve. I think I finally did at around 3‑All. Then he put the clamps down. He played great. He played well towards the end of the second and third sets, and he was definitely playing a little erratic before that. I think the wind had a lot to do with it. I definitely never felt totally comfortable like I used to when I was fully healthy and feeling like I was confident and being the aggressor all the time. I felt like I was trying to do that today, but without playing match after match, there's no real way to do that. There's no substitute for it until I start winning these matches. Then hopefully the momentum will start going my way. Q. Is that the frustrating part, that you kind of need a couple of matches in a row? It's kind of like a chicken and egg thing. JAMES BLAKE: Definitely chicken and egg. How do you get confidence without winning matches? How do you win matches without confidence? It's pretty difficult. I need to find a way to win some matches and get confidence and hopefully get the ball rolling, whether it's, you know, playing a challenger or two again or... You know, it's not normally my best confidence booster starting the clay court season, but maybe Houston will be a change for me. I know four or five years ago it was great for Mardy when I came in without a lot of confidence and went on to win that title. Maybe that will happen with me this year. You never know. Q. The same subject. We're from Chile and I didn't hear the whole answer, but I wanted to ask you, have you ever spoken to Fernando Gonzalez about what happened in that particular match? You had some kind of trouble. JAMES BLAKE: Nope. Q. Never settled that issue? JAMES BLAKE: Um, no. We haven't spoken about it. We haven't discussed it. It's in the past. Q. Speaking of John Isner, he went to college; you did, too. Here he is at No. 10 playing the way he's playing. Can you just talk about how he's risen to that point? JAMES BLAKE: Couldn't be happier for him. I think as soon as he won that match against Novak‑‑ I happened to be talking to my mom that night, and she was thrilled for him, too. We both said it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Same place I got to top 10 was Indian Wells. For him to have a big break to win over Novak there, we both feel the same way. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I sent him a text immediately joked that I'm not really looking forward to seeing his pasty chest at Saddlebrook, because there is still the rule that if you get to top 10 you can take your shirt off in practice there. I'm not looking forward to that. But he said he's already gonna start working on the tan there. I'm not thrilled about it, but other than that, I honestly couldn't be happier for him. Great guy. You know, someone that's worked hard, done everything he can the right way, I think. You know, it's not easy‑‑ it looks easy at 6'10" with that big serve, but he's put a lot of work into the rest of his game. You don't get to top 10 with just a serve. I was talking to someone else not that involved in tennis trying to explain that anyone can have a fluke win. You can beat a top player at the time, but there is no one can take away getting to the top 10. That's a full year of good results. That's impressive. So no matter what you do in your career, if you get to top 10, you know, you can hang your hat on that. You have had a pretty darn successful career. I'm. So I'm really proud of him. I'm really happy for him. I know he's still young in tennis years, especially because he didn't start until about he was about 22. He can do even better I think. The way he was playing against Novak, I mean, Novak is playing as well as anyone in the world, and a lot of those points there's nothing he can do. John just played too aggressive, too big. At that size it looks easy, but it's not. He's doing some impressive things out there that not many people can do, and I'm real happy for him. I hope he keeps winning. Would like to have faced him. Then I wouldn't have hoped he won. But other than that, if he's not playing me, I hope he's winning. Q. Do you know if you'll play Winston‑Salem? JAMES BLAKE: I don't know yet. That's too far in advance. I hope I'm healthy. That's the big thing. But I really don't know. Q. Could you talk about what you enjoyed about it last year? JAMES BLAKE: It's a fun event. For a first‑time event, the professionalism there was incredible. Great facility. Volunteers were good. All the staff was great. It was well‑run, and I had a lot of fun there. I wish I had played better, but it's always a tough tournament to play right before the US Open. It's always a tough week. But if you're gonna play somewhere, you hope it's a little more laid back and relaxed like Winston‑Salem is. So I liked it. Q. Given that it's the week before the Open, what kind of niche can it carve out for yourself? JAMES BLAKE: Um, you know, you got guys that maybe didn't have a great summer that want to get some matches in before the US Open. I think you're always gonna get John Isner playing in his home state. So that's a big deal. He's a big draw no matter where he goes, but especially in his home state. So I think that'll help for the next five or six years when John's is one of the top players in the world. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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
|