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AEGON CHAMPIONSHIPSJune 12, 2012Jamie BakerLONDON, ENGLAND J. BAKER/O. Golding THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Looks like that puts you into the top 200. JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, finally. I've had about ‑‑ the last four matches I have been for it. Yeah, that was what the little yell was at the end. Q. Obviously a big satisfaction for you? JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, obviously my highest ranking. Kind of looked like I was going to get there a lot earlier, but obviously kind of setbacks and the journey from then to now has been quite long and hard, so, yeah, it's good. I feel like I'm improving all the time. Just another step. Q. What would be a good week for you here? JAMIE BAKER: Have you seen who I play next? Q. Yes. JAMIE BAKER: (Smiling.) I think it's pretty good already. I mean, I think I've just got to enjoy the match tomorrow. I have never played somebody ranked as highly as that in a competitive match. I was actually watching him play Djokovic in the quarters last week, and sometimes I just ‑‑obviously I love watching tennis, but I was actually watching that one, and I said to the person I was watching with, I was like, I wonder what I'd actually do if I played one of these guys. I guess I'm going to have to think about that tonight. Q. Is he a guy you've enjoyed watching with his flamboyance? JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, he's unbelievable athlete. I actually played him a while back when he was kind of pushing through in a challenger, and he must have been ‑‑I think he's a year older than me, so he might have been 19 or 20, and I obviously had to be a year younger. I think the next January he then got to the Aussie Open final. But, yeah, he's a great athlete. I mean, that's what I train for, obviously, to get opportunities to play against people like that. Q. Top 200 now. Do you have any particular goals beyond that? JAMIE BAKER: I mean, the ultimate goal for me has always been to get to a point where I can actually make a living for myself out of tennis and not be dependent on asking for money from other people to have the best possible program. For me to do that, the magic number is 100 really is you can get into enough ‑‑that would get you into four Grand Slams, which is ‑‑ what is that? 15 to 20,000 pounds a time. You wouldn't need to be asking for any other money than that, so that is the goal but I think a step at a time. The next one is to get to 150. I think obviously with the ranking system, because points come off after a year, if I can actually ‑‑ a lot of my points are in the second half of the year, so if I could actually cement my place in the top 200 by December for the start of next year, that would actually be a significantly better year than I had last year, even though the number looks like, oh, you can kind of go a lot from where I am now, but actually I've got a lot of work to do just to stay where I am just now. Q. The wildcards were announced. JAMIE BAKER: Did I get one? Q. Yes. JAMIE BAKER: Yes. You could have been giving me bad news there. Q. How important is that to you, not just being involved in a Grand Slam, but the money it brings and what it enables you to do. JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, it's massive. I mean, we're so lucky to be from a nation that has a Grand Slam tournament. I mean, I never say I'm lucky to get a wildcard, because my ranking is not lucky, but definitely very fortunate to be British and very fortunate that, you know, we get opportunities to play in a tournament where our ranking doesn't get us in in itself, you know. With it being Wimbledon, I think a lot of people would acknowledge that that is "the" special tournament that everyone wants to play. So, yeah, it's always very, very exciting to have a chance to do that. Q. You grew up sort of playing alongside Andy Murray. Do you see any of him in Oli Golding in terms of, you know, A, being a good ball striker, and B, the way he conducts himself on the court? JAMIE BAKER: I probably haven't been around Oli enough. He's definitely a phenomenal ball striker. He hits the ball brilliantly. Again, he's very good at a very young age. Definitely has kind of done things that I hadn't done at his age. But I think, to be honest, it's probably unfair to compare anybody to Andy and his path, because it was so super‑human almost how quickly he adjusted and how quickly he came through and was beating guys that were right at the top of the game. So, yeah, I definitely wouldn't like to compare. Q. Is tomorrow the biggest match of your career? I mean, Argentina Davis Cup may compare? JAMIE BAKER: Oh, yeah, good memory. No, I'd say that was probably ‑‑that was huge. I mean, that was my first live rubber I'm playing away against. I mean, even to this day‑‑ well, he is the best player I've played in a competitive match, doing stuff with the ball that I actually didn't think was possible. But, yeah, individually, this is definitely my biggest match. Q. What were the conditions like out there today? JAMIE BAKER: Not easy, actually. The courts ‑‑well, there are two things. When you play first match on these courts, because they're so lush, even if they're bone dry, they're still a bit slippy. Today you're obviously still aware ‑‑ I don't know if any of you saw any of it, but I was sliding quite ‑‑I mean, eight‑ to ten‑foot slides when I was pushed wide. So, yeah, it was difficult and obviously for either of us if we could get each other moving, you were looking good for winning the point. I remember when I played Istomin in the first match here ‑ I think it was two years ago ‑ on centre court I must have fallen down five or six times and it was bone dry. Definitely an art to moving on a slick grass court. Q. You've obviously had more than your share of bad luck with injuries and ailments. I presume the incident with the blood disorder, does that make everything else pale into insignificance really subsequent to that? JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, at the time, definitely. It is amazing how quickly you go back into a kind of a normal mindset where you kind of almost forget that that happened, but, yeah, every now and again, somebody, if I don't remind myself quickly enough, somebody else will. So, yeah, that was obviously bigger than any tennis match or anything I'll ever do on the tennis court. Q. Do you ever think where you might be now if you hadn't had those physical difficulties over the years? JAMIE BAKER: Not anymore. I think when I first started to try and make a comeback, I did think that, because I was a lot younger. I was playing ‑‑I felt like I had huge momentum and was playing extremely well. So that was kind of part of my frustrations. When I started playing again, I realized how tough it was going to be to actually get my fitness back. I was on the court, but, I mean, my body had been knocked to the floor basically. But it's not something that I think about now. In fact, I see it actually as part of why I'm at my highest ranking now. I have had to be pretty strong to get through and come back from things, from something like that. So I actually see it as something that helps me as opposed to being the enemy, you know. Q. You said a couple weeks ago that the physical work you have been doing with Andy or the tennis has helped you a lot. JAMIE BAKER: Yeah, hugely. I mean, I did the offseason training with Andy out in Miami, and that was ‑‑I mean, I was feeling amazing after that. There are volumes of training we were doing. Probably make all of you feel sick. And me, at the first. And then I actually ‑‑yeah, although I was feeling that good, I had a recurrence of a stomach injury. I had to have surgery after my first match of the year, so I ended up missing three months after that. But, I mean, that kind of base work, and also Andy is good enough where I actually spend quite a bit of time with him. Just whenever we can, we will practice together. And being aware of what he actually puts in and what is of, you know, not an acceptable level but a relevant level for someone who is pushing the boundaries of the game has been even ‑‑I would see myself to be somebody that works hard, but to have exposure to what he's doing has helped me massively. Q. Do you still think that the kind of the lot, the British tennis professional, is underrated and undervalued? JAMIE BAKER: In terms of what, the level of... Q. What you actually do through the year, what you have to go through, the work you put in. Do you think sometimes it's underrated, undervalued by the masses? JAMIE BAKER: I don't think so. No, I don't think that, because I think anybody who walked into the training center now in Roehamton, you'd have to be blinded to kind of not see that people are working hard and putting in. I think everybody would recognize it. I don't think it's underrated, because everybody who is around tennis realizes that actually, although we're working hard, that definitely isn't anything special compared to what everybody is doing. Everybody is doing it, and we all know how physical it is. You only need to watch basically any tour‑level match on a clay court to understand how physical tennis is. So, yeah, I don't get that feeling. I think everyone knows. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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