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
He was serving big. I don't think he missed many forehands and his backhand was more solid than I'd expected after practicing with him a lot in December. He played a great set.
I think it has been blown out of proportion that the grass was meant to make them uncomfortable. It was all about our being comfortable. It's the surface Andy is most comfortable on and I think he's the second best grass court player in the world.
It comes from kind of life's lessons, I think.
It hurts to lose right now but when I look back on this week I'll be satisfied that I played some good tennis,
I think the music that you make, often it's even better if you identify with other people.
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.
I think when you're learning an instrument, you are restricted because much of it is the noise of individual theory and your ability to play the instrument.
Had a ground-rule double, ... The wind was blowing so hard. I had no chance.
He's a good friend, and those are always interesting matches. We're friends, but tomorrow we're going to want to go out and beat each other's brains in. On the court, we're both professionals and want to win the title.
He's a guy that I'm never going to count out, ... It's so amazing to me how many people write or ask him the question when he's going to retire. You don't see that happen too much with a guy that's top 10 in the world and has won tournaments. Why should he retire if he's enjoying it, and he's still the biggest name, the biggest draw in tennis?
He's a great player. We've had some really good matches. He hits the ball so clean, we're going to have a lot of points. There's some good shot-making and we both have pretty big serves to get free points.
His serve obviously gives him a lot of confidence. I think I had about five chances to break in the match and didn't get near any of them. It's frustrating to deal with because it makes you feel under pressure when you serve.
His serve is a joke. Sometimes it doesn't matter how you return. He can ace you out of a game. If he's hitting his spots, serving at 140 mph from that angle, there's not much you can do except say 'good serve' and move on and not get frustrated. I have to focus on holding serve like I did today.
He's been my biggest win in my career so far. Hopefully it will be again.