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
concerned front good instead level numbers
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.
fought good great guess heart played
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.
against ball best bet bets bucks faced guy hits hold hundred offer practice practicing safe says serve tennis
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.
confident continue guys help hopefully riding team wave
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.
practice work worried
It's something I've been working on for a long time, it just wasn't working tonight. But it's not something I'm going to get too worried about. I'll just go out and work on it at practice tomorrow.
asking best chasing enjoying finding grand keeps motivate reason ways
Everyone keeps asking that. But he has no reason to retire. He's one of the best in the world, still chasing Grand Slams. If he's still enjoying it and still finding ways to motivate himself, I say let him play forever.
bear cheer close connection double fans few friendly great grin growing happen high people school seems trying
Everyone seems to have a connection to me, and that?s such a great feeling. That?s what comes with growing up close to here and going to high school around here and trying to be as friendly as you can to those people around you. It makes for great fans ... even if they do happen to cheer a few times when he double faults. You just kind of grin and bear it.
beginning bit dream front perfect possible seemed seems
Still seems like a dream come true. Never seemed possible at the beginning of this week. It couldn't have been more perfect to do it in front of my friends and family. I know there's going to be a little bit of celebrating in Fairfield.
baseball caught deal games guys percentage realize season steroids ten three until weeks
The baseball thing is a joke. Ten games out of a 162-game season for steroids is a joke. Two years is much more of a deterrent. It makes guys realize that you can't get away with it. You can't do this until you get caught and say, 'Oh no, it's not a big deal if I'm only out for three weeks or something.' If you're out for two years, that's a sizeable percentage of your career.
baseball caught deal games guys percentage realize season steroids ten three until weeks
The baseball thing is a joke, ... Ten games out of a 162-game season for steroids is a joke. Two years is much more of a deterrent. It makes guys realize that you can't get away with it. You can't do this until you get caught and say, 'Oh no, it's not a big deal if I'm only out for three weeks or something.' If you're out for two years, that's a sizeable percentage of your career.
anyone days fast impossible moving trained
The ball's moving so fast these days that sometimes it's impossible for anyone to see, even a trained official.
bad best continue definitely expect game great knew match pick sets starting tennis three tough
That first set was definitely not his best tennis and I didn't expect that to continue but sometimes it's tough to pick your game up when someone has such a bad set and then they pick their game up, ... I really didn't want it to go to three sets because I knew how well he was starting to play and he can really get rolling. It was a great match and a great tiebreaker at the end.
fruition matter playing saying showing welcome
It was just a matter of showing everyone else I'm playing well. Everyone is saying that this is my welcome back, but I feel like I've been back for a while. And this is just the fruition of it all.
almost beginning cheering court crowd difference fans few fun hearing help people rounds seemed soccer sure tennis
It was a fun crowd. I was down there in the first two rounds in the first few rounds he was kind of on the back court and hearing the crowd go crazy. It seemed like they were almost a soccer crowd because I don't think they were all real tennis fans at the beginning of these few weeks, but by now I'm sure they are. It really does help and make a big difference when you know you have people cheering for you.