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
It was very important to me because half the tour is in Europe, ... I'm excited and it gives me confidence to know that I can win here. This is the first time I've had success in the European season. Other times I've kind of made my rankings just on the U.S. season and maybe down in Australia a little bit.
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.
To win on Tommy's serve was great. It was welcome. I had no regrets going after his second serve on match point. Six months ago I wouldn't have had the confidence to do it. Early in the year, the break points were the ones I was missing. I need to keep those points going my way.
If anyone wants to make the statement that they don't think he can win it, I'd love to see him prove them wrong. I am not going to make that statement. I think he has got a great chance.
I got to give my best win to Andre Agassi, being a legend, everything he's accomplished. That match, it just seemed like everything was going right for me, as it did today similarly. But, you know, it was emotional to really beat Andre Agassi, someone I idolized.
I didn't want to just rest and try to win just on my name, or just because I thought I had done well last week. Obviously the score line shows that I kept my focus the whole time.
I felt like I had to hit two winners at least to win each point,
I felt like I was able to dictate, and once I did that he might have gotten a little down on himself, ... I was able to take a couple of risks early on. I think I hit a couple of clean winners off first serves from him and that can rattle you early.
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.
It was definitely unfortunate. He gave it his all. He did everything he could to win that match.
Whether I win or lose, it's nice to be able to give it my best.
We know what's at stake. If we don't win this match, we can't win the Davis Cup next year.
Tommy just steamrolled me (in 19 minutes) in that first set, ... He returns your serve so well, it seems like you have to win every point three times.