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
Hopefully the maintenance crew won't have as much to do on the court after the first match here. Andy actually came up with that joke, so I blame him. This is the first time my name has been picked. I'm usually second. But playing first, it should be fun.
The rain delay helped me, ... My coach gave me some advice. I regrouped and came back more focused.
What I actually thought of then, ... was the tape that's replayed about five million times every time there's a rain delay here at the Open, when Jimmy Connors says, 'This is what they came for; this is what we'll give them.'
It was tough conditions, I wanted to get ahead early but I couldn't quite do that. But I came through at the end of each set.
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 came out here and played pretty well from the start so I'm pretty excited.
If I couldn't play tennis again, am I still going to be happy going back to school, maybe going to business school, doing whatever else I could do? ... Would I be able to be happy if my eye never came back to normal and I couldn't really be athletic at all the rest of my life? Could I find a way to still be happy? All those I tried to answer yes.
The only thing I don't like about this job is the travelling but here I don't have to. I sleep in my own bed, I have dinner with my mum or my friends and I feel at home on the court too.
This summer is a little better than last summer, ... I can actually sit here without feeling I am going to fall off the chair. I can actually smile, and, yeah, I definitely feel so much better and I am enjoying it a whole lot. And it does put a few things in perspective and 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.
To be in the quarterfinals is pretty unexpected for most people. But I didn't feel like it was that absurd to think that I could be here, and hopefully even further.
To be in the quarterfinals is pretty unexpected for most people, ... But I didn't feel like it was that absurd to think that I could be here, and hopefully even further.
We got him back, ... He was one of the team members when they beat us in Paris. It's a good feeling. I knew it was going to be this way when I heard how many fans were coming out and how many of my fans were going to be here. It's a good feeling when they're on your side.
This was the most fun I've had losing,
To hear them get fired up, it just makes it that much more emotional, ... If I'm down, I know I have them to count on to pick me up pretty quickly and not let myself get too far down on myself.