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 played with a lot of confidence. This is perfect, the heat, to get ready for three out of five (sets) in Melbourne.
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.
In terms of writing more club tracks, writing more electronically influenced - I feel like it was all electronically influenced, but now that influence has come to me in a different way.
I'm definitely flattered and humbled any time I can put my name in the same sentence with Arthur Ashe. That's something that is always an accomplishment to me. He's a role model for more than just tennis players, I think.
I?m really good friends with Kevin, his little brother who is my age, we go way back ... So I always want to see how J.J. is doing. I?m really proud of him and it?s fun to see Fairfield High kids doing so well.
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.
I love it. I love an atmosphere where people are a little bit biased.
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.
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 never really approach collaborations as kind of normal things where they're arranged and they happen because you've arranged them. I've always been like this, I just have friends I hang out with, and while we're hanging out, if music happens then it happens.
I need to return really well. His serve is a joke. He can ace you right out of a match.
I needed to show everyone else that I'm confident and show everyone what I'm made of, ... I feel like I've been back in the game for a while.
I'm happy to finally get a win against one of the best players of all time.
I'm happy for them that they're comfortable, and I think we're pretty comfortable as well on the grass. Especially, Andy, he's always very comfortable when he's playing on grass.