A merry Christmas to all of you out there celebrating today. My kids cleaned up. Man, do I miss the days when it was I who pulled in the loot!

Good news- I was was lucky enough to recently receive a first-hand account of the clinic and fundraiser James held at the Harlem Tennis Center this past week. Andrew Friedman, who's collaborating on James' forthcoming book, was on hand for the event and snapped a few pix for the website and relayed some of the event's details.

Without further ado, have a look.

Want to tour the Outback in search of the reclusive, freakishly fast, bald headed James Blake?

December 21, 2006

Alrighty- a little X-Mas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa treat for all the fans of JB's looks out there. Head on over here.

Want to tour the Outback in search of the reclusive, freakishly fast, bald headed James Blake?

December 11, 2006

Hello JB Nation! Good to be back in the state of California, but what a time in Virginia. I am still recovering! Let's skip this news format and head straight to the AV format that suits the world wide web so well!

Follow me here for your behind the scenes, exclusive, first person account of James' two charity exhibitions last week in Virginia!!!

Want to tour the Outback in search of the reclusive, freakishly fast, bald headed James Blake?

December 1, 2006

Hello everyone! Glad to be back and writing again. I've just finished up my end-of-season siesta, which lasted a little longer than normal this year. James worked me into the ground this past season with all his successes, so I thought I'd better rest up before the arduous off-season.

That's right, James is back working out and preparing for next year, and at the same time doing his annual round of exhibitions. Let's start off with that exo schedule. Things kick off in Virginia this year. The AnthemLive event will be next Thursday, December 8th in Norfolk at the Constant Center. It features the Blake Brothers vs. the Bryan Brothers, James vs. some guy named Andre Agassi, with Boyd Tinsley of the Dave Matthews Band serenading the players all the while.

The following night, in my hometown of Richmond, VA, James will return the favor to Andre and participate in his Genworth Tennis Classic. The doubles action this night will feature James and Lindsay Davenport vs. Mr. and Mrs. Agassi (the later of whom has also been referred to as Steffi Graf).

And for those of you in Texas, you should be positively sick of James by year's end. He'll be in Austin on December 15th for the All American Tennis Classic featuring the Blake Brothers and Mardy Fish. On the 16th, James will be in Dallas with the same crew peddling their tennis talents as part of the FedEx Shootout. Then James returns to Austin the next night as a guest for an Andy Roddick led charity dinner. Not sure if the public is invited to that or not.

So there you have it. I'll have a full report from the two events next week in Virginia, so look forward to that.

November 19, 2006

That's a wrap folks! I guess it might qualify as a slightly disappointing final match, but it was certainly not completely unexpected. James lost today to the proverbial 'Man', Mr. Roger Federer, 6-0, 6-3, 6-4. Damn those Swiss tennis players with their sick groundstrokes and gargantuan games!

Nevertheless, James acquitted himself quite nicely in his first ever year-end Masters event. He is now the 4th ranked tennis player in the world (and beat both the 2nd and 3rd ranked players in this tournament). I'd say that's certainly deserving of some major props.

Read about today's match here. I'll upload some images ASAP in the images section, and then we can all enjoy our Sunday!

In the coming weeks, I'll be updating you on James' exhibition schedule, his new racquet (tease, tease), and exactly how much turkey he ate for Thanksgiving. Stay tuned!

November 18, 2006

All I've seen is the score so far, but I'm happy to report that James has taken out Nalbandian in the semis 6-4, 6-1 and advanced to the finals to face Roger Federer, who beat Nadal 6-4, 7-5. To see stats from the two matches, head to the Masters website, click Live Scores, and then Today's Results, then click on the match.

I'll post more as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed that ESPN2 elects to show some, if not all, of the match at 10pm EST tonight.

Send your good luck wishes to James for his match vs. Federer! Use this email: cdgriff@gmail.com

November 17, 2006

In what amounted to a 'dead rubber', James lost today to Tommy Robredo of Spain in three sets, to finish off Round Robin play at 2-1. For finishing number one in the Gold group, JB faces David Nalbandian in the second semifinal tomorrow, which should start sometime around 8am EST. In the first semifinal, tennis fans will be treated to another Nadal-Federer matchup. Should be fun!

November 15, 2006

Sorry for the tardy update here (the match finished about 7 hours ago), but I had to take part in my daughter's Fun Run at school this morning (in which Chloe decided to walk the entire way), so I just now finished watching JAMES' THRILLING THREE SET WIN OVER NIKOLAY DAVYDENKO!!!

I hope you had a chance to see this match. The first 14 games of which can be summed up in this image. After that, James completely turned things around, stealing the second set 6-4, and then hanging tooth and nail for a 7-5 third set win. This picture sums up the final 16 games.

For those of you who have been watching James play over the past 5 years or so- is this not the best you've ever seen him play? The shots are all there, the consistency is there, and now there's an inner belief that even when things are going wrong, he can turn it around, and he has. What exceptional tennis, really. (And I'm not just saying this to get a piece of the $300,000 he's earned the past 3 days either).

Read a complete match recap here. You can also hear some post match comments from JB here.

James now sits at 2-0 in the Gold group, which, coupled with the other results so far, qualifies him for a semifinal berth at the Masters Cup. Not bad for the last qualifier!