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 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'm happy to finally get a win against one of the best players of all time.
I've been playing pretty solid all week. I was happy to get through the way I did. I'm just happy to get back to the final, and there's no pressure on me tomorrow against Andy. He's one of the top players in the world, and I'm just going to go out and play and have fun.
This couldn't have been better preparation for that match, ... He (Lopez) has one of if not the best lefty serves out there. If he doesn't, Rusedski probably does. I am looking at the two best lefty serves back to back and getting a win against one could correlate to getting a win (against) another.
Rafael is an unbelievable player. I think he somehow brings out the best in me, because I played some of my best tennis against him at the U.S. Open.
I am excited to be a part of such an elite group of athletes. Andre and I had such a memorable match at the U.S. Open, and it will be great to play with him once again in Idaho. This will be fun.
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.
It's a tricky proposition to play against him. You have to get your emotions in check. You have to take care of each one of those points instead of getting down on myself.
It's not easy to play against him. I'm just happy to get finally get a win against him. He's one of the best players of all-time.
I don't know how many winners I hit today, but whatever it is, you can double it, because that's how many winners I would have hit against other players. I felt like I had to hit two winners at least to win each point.
I think you better check the results again. What's his record against me? I think he's about 8-0. I'm very happy to defer to him as the No. 1. We've called him our Mariano Rivera a few times. He's our closer.
Well, again that's a pretty good way to start my year,
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'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.