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 am definitely flattered and humbled any time I can put my name in the same sentence as Arthur Ashe.
I am good friends with his brother Kevin and PGATour.com is one of the favorites on my computer so I can check out how he is doing, ... It is fun to see Fairfield High guys (make a name for themselves).
I am just so happy to be playing and now that it is going well and I feel like I'm healthy, ... I feel like things are starting to go my way, it's such a good feeling.
I am just going to try riding the wave until I wake up.
Maybe we'll be humbled a little bit. I think a lot of us need that, so maybe we'll stop arguing with the umpires.
I guess I feel as good as I can feel, I fought my heart out. I had the crowd on my side for the first four matches unbelievably strong. To see how they reacted to him and see how much they wanted a champion like him to advance, it was great.
If we have to fight for money, let's fight for money and let's get it into this region.
I am proud to say that I feel like I have a chance to contend for a major for the first time in my life.
I look forward to playing a guy like (Haas). He is someone who really has been at the top of the game and whether or not his ranking states it, he is one of the top players in the world, ... Beating guys like the way I have the last two days makes me think I can hopefully do some good things the rest of the week here and the next two weeks at the U.S. Open.
Olivier and I had a great match in the Davis Cup on clay a few weeks ago, ... It's nice to have a rematch against him on indoor hard.
My defense has definitely gotten a little better. My serve's gotten a little stronger. I've put on four or five pounds, which I think has helped me make it through the long seasons without getting injured. I think all that combined is turning into me feeling more confident when I play Top 10 players like I did today.
Now that he's gotten through that, he'll be more of a nightmare for the rest of the guys in the tournament.
Obviously he can do about anything with a tennis racket in his hand. But on a given day, hopefully so can I.
Right now, it stings. But looking back on it, I think it will be a good week.