From the Times Online 6/23/03
by Ashling O'Connor

DAMN MARIANO ZABALETA. THE Argentinian has just beaten one of America’s hottest tennis properties 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 at the Boodle & Dunthorne Champions Challenge. James Blake is not his usual sunny self. It is three days to Wimbledon, he has pain in his right shoulder and time pressures force him to give this interview while warming down on an exercise bike in the gym.
Polite words do not match the dark expression that has clouded the face of one of People magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive”. “It’s no problem,” he said, without the devastating smile that is earning him millions of admirers inside and outside tennis. I do not take it personally that he barely breaks his gaze from the bank of MTV screens in front of him.

The 24-year-old New Yorker has gained a reputation for being one of the most personable and intelligent players on the circuit. Whereas most would be monosyllabic and sulky given our present predicament, Blake shrugs off his bad mood to talk about the cult of celebrity, his childhood and his ideas to revamp the ATP Tour. All while the pedals keep turning. “The celebrity status goes with the job and you have to deal with it,” he said. “Some people may not be equipped with having to deal with interviews but we’re entertainers as well as athletes.”

Blake is a marketing man’s dream. The product of a balanced childhood in Harlem, he went on to study at Harvard. He is not a temperamental child prodigy — while his peers ate and slept tennis he was attending his frat house parties at college — and is articulate about issues weightier than his top spin. “I might be even better on paper than I am in person,” he said. “They tell me I’m such a great story — Harlem to Harvard — but I still see myself as a brat who was throwing his racket on court when he was 12 years old. Luckily that was in the junior tournaments so no one saw. Now people see me I’m on my better behaviour.”

People are starting to see a lot more of Blake, who has risen to No 23 in the world, this year making the fourth round at the Australian Open, the semi-finals at San Jose and back-to-back quarter-finals at Tennis Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Scottsdale, where he lost to Zabaleta. At Wimbledon he is hoping to better his debut last year, when he lost in the second round to Richard Krajicek 11-9 in the fifth set.

He is bound to be a hit with the crowd in SW19. Aside from that explosive forehand and an endearing manner that prompts him tothank the ballboys and girls, it is his good looks that will command the attention.

Blake, the second son of an English mother and American father, doesn’t understand the fuss. “I never really noticed it. People have to tell me. I don’t take that good care of myself. I haven’t shaved and I haven’t cut my hair in years,” he said, touching his trademark rasta locks. “It’s starting to be a pain. I might shave it all off. I just hope my power is not in my hair.”

Yet he is smart enough to appreciate his marketing potential, even if it does lead to locker-room ribbing. “Anything they can make fun of you for, they do,” he said. “Modelling was just something that was proposed to me by my agent. I haven’t done much. Any time I have done anything, I go through it laughing because I know it’s not what my real specialism is.”

As a man, albeit a beautiful one, Blake will probably never endure the scrutiny thrust upon the young women whose looks overshadow their tennis. He has sympathy for Anna Kournikova and Daniela Hantuchova. “They have so many people criticising everything about their bodies. It’s a little unfair, especially at that age, because you’re going through so many changes. It’s enough to worry about for a normal person and not someone in the public spotlight,” he said.

“It’s up to the press to cut back on that. If they choose to do some modelling on the side, then fine, but when they’re on the court their job is to play. It’s unfair to expect them to look like a model while they’re playing. It’s gruelling work.”

Blake, who lists Arthur Ashe as an idol, is a contradiction to the idea that tennis players could not care less how their sport is run. He is causing a stir with his ideas to shake up the ATP Tour that include court-side coaches and music during changeovers to counter the tedium of baseline power tennis. The Players’ Council has not been that receptive.

“In the Seventies there were so many contrasting styles with serve-volleyers, baseliners and lots of flair. Now, with the technology, we just don’t have that. We have guys who just bang it all day. Tennis has become pretty boring and we need to address that,” he said, acknowledging Wimbledon as an exception.

“People want to be entertained all the time. It’s not going to take anything away from the tennis. But a lot of people are stuck in their ways and don’t want change,” he said.

A breath of fresh air, even in the immediate wake of defeat, Blake is making his mark on tennis. I just hope I get to interview him after he has won a match.