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
I never feel great after a loss, but I guess it's about as good as I can feel. I fought my heart out. I did everything I could, ... He just played too good for me at the end.
He was serving big. I don't think he missed many forehands and his backhand was more solid than I'd expected after practicing with him a lot in December. He played a great set.
It's going to be a great match. We've had some great battles over the years, hopefully I can come out on top this time.
I know if I were in the stands, I'd be cheering for him, too, ... Because he's a great champion in every sense of the word.
I played his brother a few weeks ago. Both fight very hard. They play great defense. So it tough to put balls away even on indoor hard.
It's a lot of fun, ... Just being home, staying in my own bed, being around so many friends, people that go way back ... it's something that's very rare on tour. To be back so close to my hometown is a great feeling.
I've never played well in Europe before but it's been great so far,
I've never played well in Europe before and it feels like I'm home again. I love it here. It's been great so far.
He's a great player. We've had some really good matches. He hits the ball so clean, we're going to have a lot of points. There's some good shot-making and we both have pretty big serves to get free points.
It was tough to watch. I kept thinking, 'I wonder how I'd be doing if I was there.' Now this year to go out there, it's just a great feeling.
Then you get to come, basically, home. It's a great feeling before the Open.
It's a great feeling just to come out and be healthy,
Dean is doing a great job. He's extremely laid-back and an extremely knowledgeable coach, which I think fits great with our team. He's there to help if we need it. He also knows not to probably go overboard; we all have our own coaches, we all know kind of what we're working on in our games, and he just is there to help keep our focus there this week and keep our spirits high, I guess.
It's pretty crazy. It means I'm playing great tennis.