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U.S. OPENAugust 30, 2012James BlakeNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK J. BLAKE/M. Granollers THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Could you talk about Andy Roddick retiring now? You're kind of the veteran American player now. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I mean, I always tried to feel like I'm available for any young guys if they want advice. I've probably been guilty of giving a little too much advice if they don't want it. I definitely want to help the guys. I feel like I've done my best trying to give any sort of wisdom or knowledge that I gained on tour to guys like Isner, Querrey, Donald Young. Andy and Mardy came up with me, so we did it together. Same with Robby Ginepri, Taylor Dent. Definitely like seeing the young guys do well.  It's great to see Isner and Sam playing so well. Donald has had a little rough match patch, but hopefully he'll be back. Now the young kids‑‑ Jack Sock is doing well. I don't really know the Kalamazoo champ Novikov. I'm practicing to win singles and doubles here. I'll do whatever. If guys want to come practice with me, I'm happy to do that. I'm always trying to make myself available, open up my home to them, open up my practice time to them. If they want to see how I practice, anything they ask, I'm happy to help. I don't want to say I know it all or have any great secrets. It's not exactly rocket science out here. You put in the work, you get a little confidence, you get rolling, you try to do things the right way, you try to be happy with the result, with what happens. That's what I try to tell young guys. We'll miss Andy a ton. Andy has definitely been very open with guys. He mentored Harrison, Donald, all the practice partners. He'll spend time with all the guys at Davis Cup. He's been great. We're definitely going to miss him. Q. Andy was saying that he didn't tell you before your match because you were playing. Did you find out during the match? JAMES BLAKE: I actually saw the press conference right before I went out. I had an inclination from maybe around the beginning of this year. But I really thought his success at Eastbourne, success at Atlanta, the fact he was playing well again, could have possibly changed his mind. To be honest, I thought it would have changed his mind when he beat Federer in Miami. To me that showed he could still beat the top guys. I also knew that his body isn't the same. His body, I mean, I don't even know what it feels like, but it's got to hurt to serve 140 miles an hour for 10, 12 years. I know he's always icing his knees, his back, his shoulders can be problematic. It's not an easy sport to keep playing that long because there's no real off‑season, you don't get a chance to rest really, you're on the road so long. His career has been incredible. He's been such a stalwart in Davis Cup. I can never repay him for winning me a Davis Cup, for being the anchor on that team, clinching every match that year, just about. It's a great friendship. That will continue, but we'll miss his career, his charisma on the court, his excitement, what he brought to the game. Like he was talking about, the mentorship, he was a leader in the locker room, leader hanging out at Davis Cup, playing cards, doing whatever. He's definitely just a great leader. Q. You can look at it and say you've been in the same situation as him. Why do you think you're motivated to still stay out here? JAMES BLAKE: Well, I mean, I think everyone's at different points. I'd say if this was going on three months ago, I might have had a different answer. I might have been thinking a lot more seriously about it, too. It's funny now, I feel like I've got sort of a youthful exuberance out there again. My match tonight, I think a couple years ago, five years ago, six years ago, I would think this is a relatively routine win, get through it, get to the next round, thinking about that. I'm going to try to enjoy this. I'm excited now. It's a lot of fun because I went through a pretty tough time. With my knee injury and surgery, I really thought it might be time. It might be time to call it a career. Now that it's not and I feel good again, it's fun. It's so much fun to keep getting better because for six months or so earlier this year, I didn't feel like I was getting better. I didn't feel like I could improve or compete. For Andy, he knows he can compete, but he doesn't feel like‑‑ my guess, I don't want to put words in his mouth, he doesn't feel like he can compete for Grand Slams, still do it two weeks, seven matches. He might feel like his body is going to break down. That's a tough feeling when you've been as high as he has. When you've been No.1 in the world, Grand Slam champion, it's tough to feel you can't do that anymore. If I felt like I was going to be a challenger tour player, just okay, not the same as I could have been, I'm not sure I would continue doing it. Now I feel like I'm a player that my ranking hasn't caught up to my level. I feel I'm playing better than whatever it is I'm ranked. Last two matches I've beaten guys 50‑something in the world, 20‑something in the world. I feel like I'm excited to be doing this again. Q. What was your initial reaction when you heard that Andy was retiring? JAMES BLAKE: Like I said, I had an inclination. I was surprised he did it today. I thought he might wait till the end of the tournament, or, like I said, when he beat Roger this year, when he won two titles, I thought he might postpone it another year. Definitely surprised, but happy for him because he's doing it on his terms. He didn't go out with an injury. He didn't do it really for anyone else. He's got, in my opinion, I hope he's got no regrets. He's had an unbelievable career. He's had a lot of fun. He's made a lot of friends out here. Financially I'm sure he's doing just fine. I don't think he's got anything to regret. Q. What is fatherhood like? JAMES BLAKE: Fatherhood has been unbelievable. Now it's tough to imagine it beforehand. I didn't expect it to be so great, so exciting so fast. It was something where I think I was thinking about it, and I thought, I kind of want the kid to come out at two or three years old, walking and talking and stuff. I didn't realize the baby stage can be so much fun, when they fall asleep on your chest, when they're cooing a little bit, thrashing around on their play mat. Everything about it is so much fun. Now I can't imagine life before Riley. Q. You mentioned younger Americans. What specifically about them do you like and see in their game? JAMES BLAKE: Isner, he's the top‑ranked American now. He's shown great confidence. He can beat the top players. He beat Roger, beat Novak, took Nadal to five on clay. He's a guy, when he's playing well, he takes the racquet out of your hand, which is a guy that no one wants to play. When he's serving well, there's not much you can do except hope to get to a tiebreaker, maybe even need a little bit of luck against him. He's a pretty frustrating guy to play. He's taken big strides I think in being aggressive and making sure to put pressure on the opponent and it's showing. He's breaking guys down. It's been fun to watch him. Sam, another huge server, big forehand, just loves hitting that forehand and being aggressive with it. I love when he is aggressive. I play doubles with him. It's a lot of fun. He creates a lot of winners. That serve makes life a lot easier for me up at net. They're both such good guys. They're fun to be around. Harrison's a guy that for sure is going to get the most out of his career because he works so hard. He's someone that would ask a million questions. You give him the chance, let him sit down with myself, Andy Roddick, any of the other Americans, Mardy Fish, he'll sit and ask a hundred questions just wanting to learn about the game. He's going to get the most out of his career. I like his attitude a lot. Donald has great hands, great talent, great speed. He just needs to get his confidence back a little maybe. I don't know what it will take. It could change really quickly. One win here or there could kind of spark that. Jack Sock has a huge serve. I played him last year. That can really take you out of your game with the heaviness of his serve and a huge forehand as well. Q. Could you assess today's match. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, today's match was one of the best matches I played in years I think. I served really well. I took care of my serve. I don't think he had a breakpoint all match. That doesn't happen with me. I'm not Andy Roddick. I don't go through matches like that that often, especially against a guy that's 20‑something in the world that's known to be a pretty darn good returner and very solid. I think that was a good testament to how well I was serving and how well I was taking care of my serve, which puts a lot of pressure on him, which is going to work out for me. Any time I get to take chances to take rips on my returns, because I'm serving so well, I think it's going to be a good matchup for me. Q. Moving on to the fourth round, you were saying you feel this youthful exuberance. You'll be competing against somebody a decade younger. How are you preparing for this? JAMES BLAKE: First of all, I appreciate you putting me into the fourth round. But it's the third round against Raonic. It's interesting. I played him a couple years ago. It's funny for me to hear about people that are a decade younger than me, even younger than that. I think Harrison is like 20 and I played him a few weeks ago. It's crazy to me, because my career, it feels like it's gone so fast. I feel like I was the young kid a minute ago. Now I have a guy like Raonic who is going to be serving 140 at me. Seems like he could last forever. I felt like that when I was 22 years old, as well. It's going to be interesting. Completely different match than my first two. My first match I was able to work my way into points. The guys weren't nearly as aggressive. They weren't really taking it too me. I was the one able to be the aggressor. Tough to be the aggressor when the guy is serving 140 at you. I'm going to have to try to find my opportunities to do that, sneak out breaks where I can. Maybe it will help the fact that I practice with Isner a lot where I feel it's similar where you're not going to get many breakpoints so you better take advantage of the ones that you have. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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