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BNP PARIBAS OPENMarch 8, 2013James BlakeINDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA J. BLAKE/R. Haase THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Pretty good way to get started in this tournament. How did the game feel today? JAMES BLAKE: It felt good. I had a feeling going out there that the conditions might be kind of tough with the cold and the wind, and I wanted to kinda not let that affect me and continue to play my game. I feel like a few times this year, including the last time I played Robin last year, I was a little too passive letting the weather kind of dictate how I was going to play as opposed to just playing my game, and if the weather effects me it affects me and not worry about that. I came out kind of firing, which worked well. I think he was maybe expecting me to be a little more passive, and I got the better of him right at the beginning, which was a good feeling to get off to a good start and get a lead. The cold never bothers you as much when you're winning. It was a good feeling to start that way and to close it out the way I did, too. Q. Is that just a good way for you to start, aggressive, setting the pace? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. That's always going to be my better plan. I think throughout my career when I've gone through slumps or haven't played well it's when I was playing too tentative or passive. I know every commentator or critic will disagree with me and say I need to play more safe and play less aggressive, but from being on tour for 13 years I know I have tried it and it doesn't work for me. I'm not that good at that kind of tennis, and it's shown in my game when I do well; when I go deep in tournaments it's because I'm being aggressive and playing, you know, playing that way, my style of tennis. So if I'm still making that mistake of being too tentative, then I need to find a way to fix it quickly. Q. How much of that is confidence? Where is your confidence level right now? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, that's always a big factor, and it's sort of the chicken or the egg, which is first? If I'm not confident I'm going to play a little more passive, and if I'm playing too passive it's tough for me to get confident. So right now I'm feeling pretty confident. Even though I haven't had great singles results, just winning matches in the doubles has helped me. Jack and I played well the last two weeks, and I told him the same thing that, you know. Just any way you can win some matches it really helps your confidence, and it can help you kind of, you know, jump start your singles, too. Unfortunately for him it didn't work today, but for me it definitely helps just getting out there and winning matches. Q. Is that true, James, you went to Australia and were in qualifying and then came back to the States and played in Dallas? Is that the same sort of vein of thought ‑ getting those matches in ‑ as well? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I really needed to get matches. I think I still only played 10 or 12 matches between now and last October, which definitely isn't enough. That's why I wanted to go to Dallas. Wanted to get more matches in Australia. I would have loved to have been there a little longer. But I definitely feel like I need matches, and once I get back into the groove of playing matches and finding ways to win matches, that seems to sometimes take care of itself. Once you're playing those matches you just kind of know how to win. And, you know, there is something that I think people talk about a lot of times with guys is they're just ‑‑ they're kind of just winners out there, and I think that has a lot to do with confidence. Once they're confident they feel they're going to win every big point and play better in those situations. At the beginning of this year, I definitely didn't feel like I was that type of player. I wasn't winning the big points; wasn't being aggressive and playing my style on big points. That's what I know I need to do. After playing matches and matches and matches, I feel like it's getting better. Today I think ‑‑I don't know the stats, but I think my record on break points is probably pretty good. And I think that's going to make a big difference, is when I'm playing my kind of tennis on those big points. Q. You have been pretty outspoken about cracking down on potential dopers in this sport, so what are your thoughts on the biological passport program they announced this week? What are your thoughts on more transparency with the statistics that the ITF actually releases people to see? JAMES BLAKE: I think it's great. You know, the more ‑‑the more testing‑‑ the more accurate the testing, the better. For me, I don't know all the details of a biological passport, exactly how it works. What I do know is it sets a baseline and gets you ‑‑ and can see if there is any abnormalities that are obviously caused by drugs. So I'm glad to see that. Some of the guys might balk a little bit at the fact I heard there is going to be a little more blood testing, because, you know, hurts a little when you get stuck with a needle. But if it's all for the cleanliness of the sport, I'm all for it. You know, it's a little annoying when you get woke up at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning to get tested. But like I said, it's all part of it. We signed up for this when we put our names in the draw and we decide to make our lives public and everything and be a part of this, and we want to be competing on a fair and level field. For me, I'm happy if ‑‑I'm happy if we have stricter testing and it shows that no one is doping. That would be great, you know, for the fact that the program is already working. But if we can find a way to get to make it more strict and make more regulation and make sure that we are catching anyone that's trying to kind of pull one over on us, then great. I'm really happy that they're going to do this and become one of the leaders‑‑ this sport will hopefully be one of the leaders in drug testing. I think it's got to be leading a lot of the American sports: baseball, basketball, and football. I feel ours is much more strict. I'm happy about that. And as far as the transparency, yeah, I don't see why they wouldn't release it, not release any data. I don't know what they release, to be honest. I can't really speak about that intelligently‑‑ not that I ever really speak intelligently. I don't know what they release or they don't release. Q. Don't release exact number of tests or if it's blood tests or urine tests... JAMES BLAKE: They don't release that? Q. No. For specific players they'll give you overall numbers, but can't really see who has been tested how. JAMES BLAKE: Okay. All I know is, you know, when you're up at the top they're testing you a whole lot more. I was getting tested more when I was top 10 than I am when I'm 140. I figure that's probably the way it should be. You want to make sure the guys that are getting up there aren't doing it in a sort of underhanded way. Q. Everyone on the circuit is pretty scared of you when it comes to a card game called poker. JAMES BLAKE: (Laughter.) Q.Can you share with us your favorite smackdown poker story? You learn anything from the game that's sort of been fun to transfer over to tennis? JAMES BLAKE: Um, yeah, you know, I love playing. I'm not going to talk too much smackdown poker because things can change quickly. But, you know, I definitely love playing. I have played with guys like Isner and Bobby Reynolds back home in Tampa. We have had a few games. They can tell you how they have turned out. But it's a ton of fun. It's something that I learned about, I don't even know, six or seven years ago for that show, Celebrity Poker Showdown. I just learned it because they asked me to be on it and I didn't really know how to play and I got hooked. What I have learned is one thing that's stuck with me about it is dealing with the highs and lows. You can have a night that you play for five or six hours, and there are highs and lows in that, too. Just like in tennis, if you can have an even‑keel the whole time, it's going to make you a much better player than the player that gets too crazy when they are ahead or upset when they're down. In poker they call it being on tilt when you lose a big pot or something and you just start throwing bad money after good. You made the right decision and you lost, and then you just start playing stupid. I probably could have been accused of that when I was a kid, when I was younger of, you know, playing on the court‑‑ you're playing the right way but things just don't go your way so then you just start playing silly and you don't stay within your means or within your boundaries, within your limitations. That's one thing I did learn from poker, is you have to continue playing the right way, and if you come up short, you come up short. You did your best, but still sticking with the game plan and sticking with the right plan. Q. How would you characterize your last couple years poker‑wise? JAMES BLAKE: (Smiling) They've been okay. Things have been pretty good. Q. Mardy is going to walk out on the court for the first time in a while and you are going to be with him. JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. I think he played really well at the LA Tennis Challenge a couple days ago, so I'm excited to be out there with him. It will be fun. I practice with him a ton in the offseason, so I know he's hitting the ball great. I'm not worried about the way he's going to play. I'm happy he will be out there feeling good, and I'm honored to be the one that's out there with him when he comes back because I know how hard it's been. It's been a long journey for him, and I hope‑ I really, really hope ‑ that it's easier for him to be out there with me, with someone that‑‑ you know, I like to think of myself as one of his good friends out here that cares about him more as a person than any results will ever speak to. So we are going to go out there and have some fun, and it will bring back some memories for us when we were 20, 21 years old out here playing doubles and having a lot of fun. The veterans probably hated us because we were laughing too much while we were playing doubles. I hope we can go out there tomorrow and just laugh and have a good time. I actually think we play our best when we are doing that, but I also think it will be good for him and good for me to just get out there and laugh and hopefully make it easy on him. Q. Recently it was the 20th anniversary of Arthur's passing. Memories have become a mush. Briefly, if you would just one takeaway from Arthur, racial pioneer or apartheid or AIDS, education? JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I think what will also be enduring about Arthur is that he's always thought of even more so as a humanitarian and political activist even more so than an athlete. What he did as an athlete gave him the voice to better the community and society. That's something that is rarely seen, and especially rarely seen with someone who was as great an athlete as him, a Wimbledon champion, to be more known for his stand against apartheid and more known for charity work to help others with AIDS and to take, at that time a fatal disease, basically a death sentence when you get HIV, to use that as a voice to help others that have it tougher than you. Most people are going to crawl into a shell and say, Why me? Why did this happen? I need to do everything to be completely selfish and think about myself. He did the opposite and helped others. That's why I'm proud that the Arthur Ashe Stadium is named after him, and the biggest stadium in the world to be named after, in my opinion. Not the best tennis player of all time, but one of the greatest champions of all time for really mankind, not just for the sport. I think that will always be enduring about him. Q. How different is your life from a year ago? You have a child now; you're married. Is it harder or easier to go out on court and focus on your career? JAMES BLAKE: My life is so much better having a kid and being married. It's unbelievable. It's harder to actually go out on the road when I'm not with them. I just was with them in Dallas and my wife and daughter went home after that, so I missed them in Memphis and Delray. But being here with them ‑ and they will be in Miami with me next week ‑ it's pretty tough to describe because I'm, if you ask any of the players, I'm not a very friendly loser. So if you see me in the locker room after a match, I'm not the guy that can smile and just laugh and joke after a loss. I'm pretty quick to be in and out and getting back to my own hotel room so I can sulk on my own. But there is no sulking anymore. I get to see her, see my daughter, and her smiling makes me smile. So losses are, I don't want to say easier to take because I'm still not a very good loser, but it you puts a lot of things into perspective. Same with the wins. It's a great day right now, but if she doesn't sleep well tonight then it's not a great day. The things that she does are more important than the things that I do now. That's something that's probably been foreign to me for most of my career, because most athletes are so selfish. For a good reason. We sort of have to be successful with our career. But it really changes the dynamics, and I love that, you know. I have tried to embrace every stage of my career: When I'm just learning how to be out here on tour, how to be a player, when I was sort of in my prime and doing really well and, you know, getting a lot of media requests and endorsements and all that stuff. Now sort of later in my career, I feel definitely a little more like a man than a kid out hire. It's because of the responsibilities I have with her, and I love it. I'm trying to embrace, you know, each stage and the other stages of my career have been great and they were a ton of fun and served their purpose and I like to think of it as them getting me to where I am now. You know, the stage I'm at now and, you know, I'm sure a lot of people would look from the outside looking in and feel it's not as much fun I'm not top 10 in the world or anything but if they got to see me every day they would know that I'm happier now than I was then. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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