from atptour.com

Interview With James Blake
The American will be making his Wimbledon debut in singles this month.

James Blake will be the top seed at next month's Miller Lite Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport. Blake, who joins us from London, is enjoying his best season on the ATP circuit with a 13-17 match record. He's 28th on the ATP Champions Race and No. 37 on the ATP entry system.

Blake reached his first ATP final in Memphis earlier this year, and he was a quarterfinalist in San Jose, Houston, and Tennis Masters Series - Rome. He's also helped the U.S. to the Davis Cup semifinals against France coming up in September, and he has a 3-0 record this year and he's undefeated in his career in Davis Cup play with a 5-0 mark. A week from Monday, Blake will be making his Wimbledon debut in singles at the All England Club. He's played doubles the last two years there, and I know he's looking forward to his first Wimbledon singles main draw.

Q. Hey, obviously, you know, you started this tournament last year at No. 140 in the world. You've worked your way up to, well, Top 40, Top 30. This obviously gave you a lot of confidence, making the semifinals here last year. Can you talk a little bit about that and how it went.

JAMES BLAKE: Sure. Before going in to the grass court season, I felt like I had a good chance there to get some points and maybe get a few wins. And, unfortunately, I injured myself a little bit right at the beginning there so I didn't -- I really didn't play my best in Wimbledon and Queen's Club here. And then I went to Newport. It finally healed, and I was healthy and it was an opportunity for me. And I was also very comfortable since I was back near home, and I had some of my friends there.

Actually, it started out looking kind of bleak with a tough draw, playing the top seed first round and then the defending champion in the second round. So I just felt like I had nothing to lose and I was just having fun. And I happened to start playing well there and got some confidence. And then once you get a little bit of confidence, you can kind of get on a roll on this tour. And that's, fortunately, what happened. It started there last year.

Q. Great. Tell me about the semifinal match. I guess you had a lot of your friends from Harvard down.

JAMES BLAKE: Uh-huh.

Q. Obviously, it was kind of a heart-breaker, but still, you were right in it.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it was a tough one. It was -- I didn't really expect to be there kind of, because I told a couple of friends of mine if I got to the weekend, they had to come up. Because I thought they were going to maybe make it during the week. I wasn't in touch with the whole real world of people that have jobs during the week. So they had to work.

Then they said they'd come up if I made it to the semifinals. Since it was my first semi, no one really expected me to get there, I don't think. So I had some friends coming to watch. And I just played a pretty good match up until it really got tight at the end. Serving for the match, you know, that's something you probably should win on grass. But Martin came up with some good shots, and I unfortunately just didn't play quite the same way I did to get me there.

That was part of the learning process that I'm still going through about how to win matches like that.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about coming back to play for Hartford, how you made your decision.

JAMES BLAKE: Sure. When I played there two years ago, I had a great time. It's a lot of fun. Last year, it just really didn't fit into my schedule because it was right around Newport and I wanted to play Newport.

I think I just needed that to help with my confidence on tour. Winning matches that were for, you know, the tour level and just to get points and move my ranking up since it wasn't kind of where I hoped it would be at that time.

Now I feel like I'm starting to be a legitimate part of the ATP Tour. I wanted to play it again because it was fun, and you get a lot of practice and a really good atmosphere. It's just totally different from a normal tour match. You have a crowd that's really into it and excited, and they can move around and they don't necessarily have to be extremely knowledgeable about knowing all the rules of when to talk, when not to. You got a deejay there playing music, and it's just a lot more fun and lively.

Also, I've always had a good time in any kind of team atmosphere - college, I had a good time playing for my team; high school, I played on a team. And now, I've been privileged to be a part of the Davis Cup team. So any kind of team atmosphere is a lot of fun when you have other people that you can hang out with, go out to dinner with, and just be in a sport that's an individual sport, but have a whole team around you.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about going in to Wimbledon, making your debut in singles. That must be pretty exciting?

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it's definitely exciting, especially since my mother is British. So she loves coming over here, coming back to see where she grew up and everything.

Having my parents come over and see me play in Wimbledon, I don't think they ever really expected that to happen. Now it's a reality, and I actually have a chance to be seeded there. It's really a dream come true. Now I'm definitely going to take it all in while I'm on the grounds and appreciate how far I've come to get there and how hard I've worked.

I'm sure the first couple of games out there will be a little nerve-racking and maybe a little tense, but then once the match starts, you really just have to let your competitive nature take over and just think of it as another match and try to win that. Then from there, you know, hopefully good things can happen.

We'll see how I do. I think I can do well on grass courts. I'm kind of nursing a little bit of an injury now, but hopefully it will be better by Wimbledon.

Q. What's the injury?

JAMES BLAKE: I sprained my ankle at the French Open. I actually re-did it here my second day practicing at Queen's. So it's still not quite 100 percent.

Q. You think you've exceeded people's expectations the last couple years? You've really burst on the scene.

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I think -- I don't really know what a lot of people's expectations are. When I wasn't doing so well, I just don't think there were a whole lot of people that were taking an interest in my career. Once I finally started doing well, I think just about everyone was talking to me and saying that, you know, they thought I was going to do it the whole time.

So I can't really say whether or not they actually mean that, or if they just kind of jumped on later. But I feel like people have always kind of cheered for me and hoped I'd done well. But I can't see too many people really expecting what has happened, because I probably would have never expected it.

And no one can really tell - especially when a kid's 17, 18 years old - how their mind is, how mentally tough they're going to be, if they're going to work hard, if they're going to be ready for the tour and all the traveling, all the losses. Sometimes being in a foreign country, you don't speak the language. Just a lot of little things, and no one can really tell for sure. When anyone says they know for sure or something like that, it's just not possible, I don't think.

So I think I've gotten -- I've improved at a much quicker rate than I ever expected. And, I mean, I think my coach has always believed in me, Brian Barker, and my parents have known me. I mean, the people that have known me really well like that knew that I was going to work as hard as I could to get as far as possible. That's all they can really do. I don't think any of them knew if I was going to be Top 30, Top 10, Top 100 or what, but they knew I'd work my hardest.

Q. James, you talked before about you had confidence and your learning experience from last year in the semifinals. How about this year coming in to Newport, at this point you're going to be the top seed. How is that going to be different for you, or is it going to be different at all?

JAMES BLAKE: Well, yeah, it will be a little different. Of course I do actually remember last year when I was playing the top seed. They mentioned that in the history of the tournament the top seed has never won the tournament, so I'd like to come back and change that, that statistic.

But definitely it's different when you're the top seed and you're really the hunted instead of the hunter. When guys are -- when whoever plays me first round, they'll see it as a great opportunity where they have nothing to lose, I think, and they're ready to play their best and have nothing to worry about. So it's definitely a different position.

But at that point, it's kind of like being up a break or something and serving - you have to kind of play the same way that got you there. You can't think -- play a little tentative, maybe your name will win you a match or a few points or anything. Guys out here are too strong mentally and too talented to give you anything like that. If anything, they're going to play better, I think, against a higher-ranked player.

So I think it will actually make it tougher. Maybe it will help a little bit in the fact that I can't play a seed until the quarters, but I think all the matches are going to be pretty tough.

Q. I was just wondering if you feel, James, that you're entering a different stage of your career. Do you expect and/or feel pressure to win? Maybe you always have, I don't know. Have you ever been happy-go-lucky as you appear on the court, or do you feel like you should be winning now?

JAMES BLAKE: Well, these days I'm definitely kind of happy-go-lucky, as I appear on the court. I'm just having a great time out on the court. That's something I learned when I wasn't quite so happy-go-lucky. I was kind of a brat when I was a kid, and yelling and whining and crying and throwing my racquet.

Eventually, with the help of my coach and my parents, they got me to change that attitude, which got me to have a lot more fun on the court and just kind of relax a little bit more and know that it's not the end of the world if you lose a match.

I think that was a great balance. Since I'm extremely competitive, which is why I used to get so mad, I kind of always want to win. And they balance that out by making sure that I was sill just having fun.

You got to be competitive on the court, but then after the match there's really nothing you can do. You played your best, and you worked as hard as you could to prepare for that match. So what else can you do really but enjoy the time you're out there.
It's something -- I mean, it's a much better thing to be doing, I think, during the day than a lot of other things. So I'm definitely having a good time on the court. I feel like if I just think about that, then the wins will come. And if they don't, then, you know, I'll still try to find a way to have some fun while I'm losing.

It's something that I've talked about a lot with my coach. When you're winning so much, you can't think about it too much and get, you know, too confident or too cocky in thinking that you're going to win all the time, because then you're setting yourself up for a crash. If you're losing too much, losing first round after first round, you just can't get too down because then you'll never be able to pick yourself back up. You got to try to always keep pretty stable. That's what I'm trying to do. I'm not necessarily putting any pressure that I have to win now, I'm just trying to keep the mindset that, you know, wins that are coming, that's great, I put in the hard work to earn those. The losses that are coming, everyone else is putting in a lot of hard work, too, and they probably deserve those. But I just have to have confidence that I'll keep getting some wins.

Q. Last year you mentioned that you were hoping you'd get to the weekend and your friends could come out and see you. Are they almost expecting you to get to the weekend this year?

JAMES BLAKE: I don't know if they're expecting me to. I mean, I might have to make the same bet. Like I said, other people have, you know, real work-week jobs, so they might only be able to come out during the weekend.

But I'm definitely not expecting to get there. Everyone -- like I think Mark Stenning said, no top seed's ever won it. So I know it's going to be tough. But I would love to get there. I mean, I would feel like it was a success if I'd won three tough matches and someone just happened to play better than me, there's nothing I can do.

But I feel like if I am playing really well, there's no reason any more why I can't get to the weekend and can't get to the semis or even farther this year. I definitely have the confidence, and I feel like I have the ability. Last year I don't know if I had the confidence. Like I said, I was the hunter last year, where I was hunting the top seed and the defending champion and playing a little above myself.

This year I feel like I can just play within myself. And, you know, if I get a little luck here and there, which is - you always need on grass courts - then I think I could possibly get to the semis or further.

Q. Is there an excitement level, knowing that your friends are going to be watching you?

JAMES BLAKE: Sorry, I didn't hear all of that.

Q. I'm sorry. I said did it increase your excitement level a little bit last year where you were hoping friends would come down to visit that you hadn't seen in a little while if you could make it to the weekend?

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I think it's great. I mean, little incentives like that I think have always been fun for me to think about. I mean, I think my parents used to do little things like that where if I would win a tournament, they'd get me a pair of shoes that I wanted or something like that.

So it was just another, you know, little incentive where I'd love to get to see my friends. If not, you know, hopefully I'll get to see them some other time down the road. It wasn't something I was thinking about while I was on the court. But beforehand and afterwards, it's nice to think I'm one step closer to maybe getting to see my friends.

Then when I did get to see them, I really appreciated it. I felt like it was something that was great because I had won some matches and I got to see my friends. So it's kind of a doubly exciting thing for me to make it to my first semis and to see a bunch of my friends.

Q. You said at the beginning of the call that you are starting to feel like a legitimate part of the ATP Tour. Can you pinpoint when that feeling started to surface for you and how it manifested itself.

JAMES BLAKE: Sure. I think, you know, Newport, I still was playing a lot of challengers and working my way up. I felt like I had the ability to maybe get there, but I didn't have the confidence.

And then when I got through Newport, I know that's a grass court tournament where kind of anything can happen. So I thought, you know, maybe "I hope that's not just, you know, one fluke thing," like there have been guys that have had one great tournament and then kind of fallen off the next year. So I didn't really feel it then.

Then I was still getting wildcards into tournaments. But then I think it really helped at Cincinnati when I first beat Julien Boutter who was around 50 in the world at the time, and then Arnaud Clement, who was around maybe 13 or 14 in the world at the time. And getting two wins like that, that were just solid tour-level wins - and Clement at that time was my best win ever - that made me feel really good.

I didn't play unbelievable; I played really well, but I didn't play so much above myself that it was just, you know, one of those days where nothing was going wrong, it was just a really good day.

Then playing Pat Rafter, someone who was obviously at the top of his game at that time - I think he made it to the finals there and was playing really well - and I took him to a tiebreaker in the first set and had a set point, really could have won that set point. Then, you know, anything could have happened.

But after the match, he just told me, you know, "The only difference was that I didn't believe I could beat him." He said, you know, "Now do you believe you can beat me? I hope you do." And having someone as accomplished as him and, you know, still going in the tournament, could be, you know -- a lot of times the sport is a very selfish sport. He was not selfish at all. He was there to help me. He kind of picked me up even though, like I said, I'm pretty competitive so when I lose, I'm very disappointed for a little while.

But hearing him say that, that I was just that close and he didn't play badly, that that was just a normal match, he made me feel really good about that. And I think I took that confidence into the US Open and played really well there.

And then, I mean, I think at that point I was starting to feel it. It was kind of starting to snowball at that point, where I was getting more confidence.

Then the match with Hewitt where I was actually leading him two-sets-to-one and playing - I felt like I was playing as well or better than him at that time, before I started cramping and just my body gave out at that time. So then extending the eventual champion to five sets and playing such a good match, high-level tennis there, made me feel like on any given day I can play with the best in the world. So why shouldn't I feel like I'm a part of the tour now?

And those matches really helped me.

Q. Are you at all disappointed that Andre Agassi still is sticking by the fact that he says he won't come to Paris for the Davis Cup? Do you think your team can go ahead and do well anyway?

JAMES BLAKE: I would never, you know, judge anyone else' decisions because tennis is a very individual sport. What works for one individual might not work for others.

I mean, there's so many different ways to get to the top. Some people go through a tennis academy, some people go through a public school, some people quit school. There are so many different ways, different attitudes. I mean, just in the styles of play - serve and volley, baseline. It's very individual.

So I can't question his decision. Andre's had so much success in his career in Davis Cup, in Grand Slams, in everything he's done. There's really no way for me to question that. All I can do is prepare the best I can, and I know that in my mind if Patrick calls me, I take it as a privilege, you know, to go and represent my country.

And I'm going to do my best whether he feels -- I mean, it's Patrick's decision totally whether he wants me to play at all, whether he wants me to play singles, whether he wants me to play doubles. And I just have to be as prepared as possible to get ready to do that.

I'm not in a position to worry or to have any statement about what Andre's doing. I mean, I think if we had him on our team, it would make our team extremely strong and a force there on the clay. He's proven he can do unbelievable on any surface, but especially on the clay. I definitely think it would help.

But I don't see why another team that the U.S. fields can't win that match. I think we've got Andy, who's ready and willing to play, who can play some great tennis on clay. I think he had a tough draw at the French Open, but he proved in Rome he can play well. I've had a little bit of success on the clay. Obviously, Pete Sampras has come back this year to play on the team. And he hasn't had so much success at the French Open, but in two matches you can never really count out Pete Sampras. And Todd Martin has had some success on clay. I mean, I think we have options. It's just up to Patrick McEnroe to make those tough decisions. He's made a lot of good decisions so far, I think, and I don't see why he'll stop now.