James Blake
James Blake
James Riley Blakeis an American retired professional tennis player. Blake is known for his speed and powerful, flat forehand. During his career, Blake had amassed 24 singles finals appearances, while his career-high singles ranking was World No. 4. His career highlights included reaching the final of the 2006 Tennis Masters Cup, the semifinals of the Beijing Olympics and the quarterfinals of the Australian Openand US Open, as well as being the former American No. 1. His two titles for the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTennis Player
Date of Birth28 December 1979
CountryUnited States of America
He adjusted. He put me on the defensive. Even though I like to run and I feel I'm pretty good on the run, he started to make me run to the point where it was uncomfortable.
I came out here and played pretty well from the start so I'm pretty excited.
I think this is the first time I've been picked. It should be fun, and hopefully I'll start us off on a good note.
I was trying to sound like some of the people I was listening to, like Mala and Coki.
Once I got that first break (in the third set), having the sense it was almost over was great. Having that crowd to front run is great.
I really had no expectations at the beginning of the year, ... I was happy just to be playing, even in Challengers. But the U.S. Open was really the turning point. Now I know I can do it and, on any given day, can beat any player in the world.
I am excited to be a part of such an elite group of athletes. Andre and I had such a memorable match at the U.S. Open, and it will be great to play with him once again in Idaho. This will be fun.
I never faced Pete (Sampras) in a match. I think from watching, his is the best serve ever. And he is the only guy that I would probably not take the bet that he would so often offer in practice -- he's down love-40, says '10 bucks, I still hold serve.' I probably wouldn't even take that against him. So many times he would come back and win. He would just put it on the dime. I also wouldn't take the bets when we were just practicing our serves, he put just a tennis ball can on the other side, and says, 'A hundred bucks for who hits more.' That's not a safe bet with him.
I think you better check the results again. What's his record against me? I think he's about 8-0. I'm very happy to defer to him as the No. 1. We've called him our Mariano Rivera a few times. He's our closer.
It's not easy to play against him. I'm just happy to get finally get a win against him. He's one of the best players of all-time.
It's going to take time because no matter how good you are or how hard you've worked, there's no substitute for playing matches. I think he needs to get a few matches in, and then once he gets a little bit of confidence in match play, I think he's going to get that ranking right back up there.
It's a tricky proposition to play against him. You have to get your emotions in check. You have to take care of each one of those points instead of getting down on myself.
This couldn't have been better preparation for that match, ... He (Lopez) has one of if not the best lefty serves out there. If he doesn't, Rusedski probably does. I am looking at the two best lefty serves back to back and getting a win against one could correlate to getting a win (against) another.
Alberto's a great player but had a bad day. I'd like to think that was partly because of me, I was putting pressure on him the whole time. I served very well, and once you get rolling with one part of your game the rest of it follows so it's a good feeling.