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
Andre's really a true gentleman, one of the friendliest guys in the locker room, ... (He's) got everything you can dream of, but he still knows how to treat people. And that's something I really admire. He's someone you can tell your kids to look up to and be proud of.
The moment you hear your father passes away is about as low as it gets.
I got some confidence and kept it rolling.
It's pretty crazy. It means I'm playing great tennis.
As long as I keep being invited, I am gonna keep coming...this is real fun. And thanks to Lindsay. It is great, I come down here and my partners never lose. It makes my job a heck of a lot easier.
I felt like I had to hit two winners at least to win each point,
I've found the happy medium. I've been too relaxed, too hyper, used up too much nervous energy,
I want everybody to tune in, ... people who are tennis fans and people who aren't tennis fans, and we'll give them a good show and do it the right way.
I hope that's kind of the reason they put me on this team, was that I hope the rest of the teammates have the confidence in me to deal with the pressure of playing a fifth match. I'm feeling pretty good about the way I'm playing. Hopefully, I'll do the same on Sunday.
On clay, his serve still isn't a weapon, but he can back it up really well. Here, he wasn't able to do that. I was able to hit a couple of clean winners off of first serves, and that can rattle you early.
It was definitely unfortunate. He gave it his all. He did everything he could to win that match.
I've got to start talking to somebody about getting some better draws, ... I always see it as an opportunity. I expect really high-level tennis on Saturday. I couldn't quite break through those times, but maybe this time will be different.
I'm just excited to be on the court. It was a rough patch for me for a while. I would have given anything last year just to be playing. It's not easy to take that long of a time off with so many things on your mind. So I'm happy to be playing. I know I'm going to get better.
Being down a break and a set doesn't mean that much. I knew that I had the confidence to win the match and luckily it came through for me today. I knew I had to pressure early in the third set. He doesn't have much of an offensive game.