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 like to think I keep getting better. I feel like now I'm playing as well as I did when I was 20-something in the world. It's been a while since I've really felt like I have played this well.
If there's anyone I'm cheering for it's Andre.
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.
The need for employees speaking the English language is critical to our success.
That's always what I've wanted people. That's the kind of respect I want,
I'm going to try to play within myself, ... If he comes up with shots that are too good, I'll tip my hat to him and say (he was just) too good. If I do need to adjust, if I'm getting beat, if I'm down a set and a break, he's really beating me that way. I might have to adjust and figure out some other way to play. But I'm not going to go out just trying to blast winners from every corner just because it's Andre Agassi. I'm going to try to play my game.
I'm grown up and I'm realizing that you can be a man and still cry. There are some things that you can't control. Emotions take you over. I mean, if anyone, if any guy, went through what I went through and didn't cry at his dad's funeral, I'd probably question that person.
Being down a set point, I just kept playing my game. Once I got it into my hands, I felt like I was dictating better and things seemed to happen.
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.
I'm riding a wave of confidence, and hopefully it will continue here. These guys are here to help me, and I'm here to help them, so we've got a pretty confident team overall.
I'm more concerned about my level of play than my ranking, ... But it is good to see my ranking have two numbers in front of it instead of three.
I'm from New York and I'm still the underdog. He's the favorite everywhere he goes. If I was in the stands I'd be cheering for him, too,
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.
If my legs start going at all, the crowd will be my legs for a little while,