WESTERN AND SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS

August 13, 2003

James Blake

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I'm not a seed, yeah, so I'm not quite going down yet. I think, like I said yesterday, in these kind of tournaments, it's time to stop being surprised when all the seeds go out. The matches are just so close. The players, the depth is amazing. So the guys that are ranked 50 are, I mean, maybe two percent worse than the guys that are ranked 15. So on any given day, anything can happen. So it's not as surprising as a lot of people think.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I felt great. Started out really well. I knew he was a solid player that makes you beat him. Similar to a matchup I had last week with Jiri Novak, a guy that just plays real solid, makes a lot of first serves, makes a lot of returns, and makes you beat him. This time, I just tried to capitalize on the mistakes I made last week and make sure to be as steady as I could be and then when I get my chances, try to use the weapons I have. I feel like a player like that might not possess the same kind of weapons. And I was able to do that. When everything's going right for me that way, I feel great out there.

JAMES BLAKE: Definitely. Like I said, I can't just rush in and try to be careless with it because he can pass really well. But when I get the chances, really take advantage and get to net and put the pressure on him. And I did a great -- I felt like I did really well with that today, just the right balance. Because if you do it too much, he ends up just dumping them at your feet and feeling pretty comfortable with the passing shots. I think I did really well. Cliff and Patrick in the booth told me afterwards that I was 25 for 31 when I came in, so I'm really happy with that. I can't do much better than that, so I felt great.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, every time a tournament starts, I dream of, you know, standing at the podium two weeks later with the trophy. That's what I want to do. I'm realistic; there's 127 guys with that same dream. But I definitely don't feel like there are many guys that can't win it. You can string together seven matches, anything can happen. Anyone out here can be beaten. It's gonna be fun to see. I think that's what makes men's tennis great. A lot of people are saying that's what's making it tough to follow because there are so many guys that can win. But I really think that's exciting. You don't have one guy dominating. Right now, Andy is probably playing the best out of all of them, but he's still beatable, as Federer showed at Wimbledon, as Tim showed in DC. There aren't too many guys that can just go through a summer without losing, so... One bad match at the Open, and summer's over.

JAMES BLAKE: Definitely. I think that's possibly part of the reason for not doing as well in the clay court season. That's when some of my points started coming off, I had to defend those. Your first time around doing that is a little difficult. You have a lot of guys shooting for you. You're kind of the one that's expected to win. Like I said, the difference between 20 and 50 is two percent. It's not like you're going to win playing bad tennis; you've got to still play great to win. I wasn't able to do that right away, but I feel like I've learned as best I can from those mistakes. Now I feel like my ranking might drop now because of DC coming off last year or something, but I still feel like I've gotten better. I'm not as worried about the ranking, I'm just worried about improving. I feel like I'm doing that. So the expectations, I think I've gotten a lot better at handling them. Hopefully, I can continue to do even better.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, like I said, he's probably playing the best out of all the guys right now, but he's still beatable, still human. You know, his serve can go off - I hope - because it's almost impossible to return when he's serving well. But I got to take my chances on that. When I get second chances, try to go after him, make him play, and then really concentrate hard. I think the biggest thing about his serve being so big is it makes your service games so important. You've got to hold those. And I got to really focus on those and make sure I can hold and try to attack him, similar to the way I did with Schalken today - get into net the right amount of times so it's not too much where he gets comfortable and it's not so he gets comfortable just pushing and staying back and waiting until he gets his chance. Because he's got just as big a forehand and can attack me the same.

JAMES BLAKE: Unfortunately, it doesn't usually work out too well for me because I don't think I've beaten him yet except in Team Tennis, which is only up to five. But we do know each other's games pretty well. Unfortunately, even when you know where he's serving, sometimes you can't get it back. That doesn't always help me. But we have a good time. We usually have some pretty good matches. It's kind of fun because we both, you know, we're both proud enough to go forehand to forehand, and we want to show off our weapons, and we have kind of similar weapons in our big forehand. So it's fun. We try to attack each other's backhands, get into net and use our athleticism. He's been doing it a lot better than I have lately, but I still feel like anything's possible.

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, that's always fun. I love the fans here. They've kind of taken me in as one of their own. It's where I've had some success, where I kind of had my first breakthrough in singles and my biggest win in doubles. So I love being here. It gives me confidence playing in front of a crowd that is as biased in my favor often. I'm sure tomorrow if it's against Andy, it will be a little more split because he's a crowd favorite as well. He's exciting to watch. He's a young guy and, you know, been all over the media so he's got a ton of fans. But you know, that makes it fun. When you've got more people watching, it makes you want to play a little better, makes you want to perform and want to show off your best game.

JAMES BLAKE: I think it was a little outside, but I gave it a little bit of heat so I was happy about that. Mardy was a little scared. He was moving back out of the catcher's box. I don't know, I didn't want to hurt him too bad, so I just... I was setting him up for the next pitch. The next pitch I was gonna go high and tight, but that's all right.

JAMES BLAKE: I actually did it in Houston. In Houston it was during Davis Cup. Me and Andy did it actually at the same time, so we weren't really throwing off the mound. I just tossed it there. This is the first time I really gave it the gas (smiling).

JAMES BLAKE: Sure. You know, he's been a great ambassador for the game, here and in Asia. He's the guy that gave hope to the little guys, really. He was one of the first to come out that was so small during a time when there were bigger hitters coming along. He showed with just great fight, hard work, and, you know, some great legs he could succeed. And, you know, he also did it in not really a combative way. He did it, you know, getting as excited as possible within himself and to his fans and stuff, and not aggressive towards the opponent, which is a great way to show kids, you know, how to enjoy themselves, be intense but not be very aggressive. And I think that's great for him. And, you know, fans really love him, it seems like, every stop that he goes to on this farewell tour. We'll definitely miss a competitor like that. I don't know what else to say. He's been an inspiration to so many kids that I hope he continues to help in that way and be a positive role model. That's definitely what he's been.