James Blake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Image:Blake James.jpg | ||
| Country | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States | |
| Residence | Saddlebrook, Tampa, Florida, U.S.
nicknames: J, JB, J-Blake | |
| Date of birth | December 28 1979 | |
| Place of birth | Yonkers, New York, U.S. | |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | |
| Weight | 183 lb (83 kg/13.1 st) | |
| Turned Pro | 1999 | |
| Plays | Right-handed; one-handed backhand | |
| Career Prize Money | US$5,183,360 | |
| Singles | ||
| Career record: | 243-151 | |
| Career titles: | 10 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 4 (November 20, 2006) | |
| Grand Slam results | ||
| Australian Open | 4r (2003, 2004, 2007) | |
| French Open | 3r (2006) | |
| Wimbledon | 3r (2006, 2007) | |
| U.S. Open | QF (2005, 2006) | |
| Doubles | ||
| Career record: | 84-81 | |
| Career titles: | 5 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 31 (March 31, 2003) | |
|
Infobox last updated on: November 5, 2007. | ||
James Riley Blake[1] (born December 28, 1979 in Yonkers, New York, United States) is an American professional tennis player and is currently the 13th ranked player in the world, as of December 3, 2007, and is 13th in the ATP Race points. He is the second-ranked American player behind Andy Roddick. Blake is known for his speed and powerful forehands. In 2006 he reached the final of the Tennis Masters Cup but lost to World No. 1 Roger Federer in three sets, 6-0, 6-3, 6-4. On July 3, 2007, Blake's book, "Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life"[dead link], discussing his comeback after his unlucky 2004 season, was released and debuted at #22 on the New York Times bestseller list. He wrote this book along with Andrew Friedman.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Blake was born in Yonkers, New York, United States to African-American father Tommy Sr. and White British mother Betty. He has a brother, Thomas Jr., who is also a professional tennis player, and three older half-brothers, Jason, Christopher, and Howard, and a half-sister, Michelle.
Blake started playing tennis at age five alongside his brother Thomas. When 13, he was diagnosed with severe scoliosis and for five years as a teenager, he was forced to wear a full-length back brace for 18 hours a day, though not while playing tennis. Blake attended Fairfield Warde High School (then called Fairfield High School), in Fairfield, Connecticut. A schoolmate was future musician John Mayer. Blake was inspired to pursue tennis after hearing his role model, Arthur Ashe, speak to the Harlem Junior Tennis Program. Brian Barker was his first (and current) coach. He dropped out of Harvard University after his sophomore year to pursue a career in professional tennis.
[edit] Career
[edit] 2000-2001
At the age 21, Blake saw his first Davis Cup action in 2001 against India and became the third man with African-American heritage to play the Davis Cup for the United States (after Arthur Ashe and MaliVai Washington).
Ranked No. 120 in the world, Blake accepts a wild card into AMS Cincinnati. He beats a qualifier and Arnaud Clement to reach the round of 16 where he meets Patrick Rafter. Blake comes close to winning the first set (falling in a tiebreak), and after dropping the second set, Rafter, according to Blake's autobiography, compliments him at the net and boosts his confidence immeasurably by saying "Now do you believe you can beat someone like me, or even me?"
[edit] 2002-2003
In January, Blake won the 2002 USTA Waikola Challenger in Hawaii. A month later, in Memphis, he posted his first win over a top-ten ranked opponent, Tommy Haas, who was then ranked fifth, and reached the finals, losing to Andy Roddick. He posted solid results over the summer, reaching the quarterfinals at the ATP Masters Series (AMS) event in Rome in May and then the finals at Newport in July.
In August in Cincinnati, he won his first career ATP Tour title and his first ATP Masters Series title: it came in doubles with Todd Martin and it made Blake the first African-American male to win a title of any kind in Cincinnati's 101-year history. He was also the first African-American to reach a final in Cincinnati since 1969 when Arthur Ashe reached the doubles finals with Charlie Pasarell.
The next week in Washington, he won his first ATP Tour singles title by beating Andre Agassi in the semifinals and Paradorn Srichaphan in the final.
At the U.S. Open, he reached the third round before falling to top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt in five sets.
In 2003 his best results were a quarterfinal showing at AMS Indian Wells; a Round of 16 finish at the Australian Open, AMS Cincinnati and AMS Miami; a semifinal appearance at San Jose; and a finals appearance at Long Island.
[edit] 2004
The year of 2004 was an especially difficult year for Blake. While practicing with Robby Ginepri for the Masters event being held in Rome, he broke his neck when he slipped on the clay and collided with the net post. In July his father died as a result of stomach cancer. At the same time, Blake developed shingles, which temporarily paralyzed half his face and blurred his sight.
With all these stresses and setbacks occuring all at once, Blake's future in tennis was in serious jeopardy.
[edit] 2005
Blake's injuries and personal issues caused him to post relatively poor results for the first half of 2005, and by April his ranking was at No. 210. Blake made the decision to play the Challenger circuit, the "minor leagues" of tennis, in order to gain confidence and get more matches. In May, he entered Challenger events in Tunica, Mississippi, and Forest Hills, New York, and won both. He then rejoined the ATP circuit, and by August he was playing well enough to reach the final at the International Series event in Washington D.C., where he fell to Roddick.
He was then given a wild card into AMS Cincinnati, where, unfortunately, he drew Federer in the first round. The following week he entered and won the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament in New Haven, Connecticut, defeating Feliciano Lopez in the final.
His efforts that summer helped him re-enter the ATP Top 50, and after New Haven he was ranked No. 49.
Blake then accepted a wildcard into the US Open, where he defeated No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the round of 32. In the round of 16, he beat Tommy Robredo in four sets to reach the quarterfinals where he succumbed to Andre Agassi in a memorable fifth-set tiebreak after winning the first two sets. He lost 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (6).
In October at the Stockholm Open in Sweden, Blake won his third ATP tour title, defeating Srichaphan in the final. Blake finished 2005 ranked #22 in the world.
[edit] 2006
Blake started the year strong, winning the title at Sydney to take his fourth ATP tour title. He defeated Russian Igor Andreev in the final.
At the Australian Open he was seeded twentieth, and lost in the third round to Spaniard Tommy Robredo. Despite the loss, he cracked into the Top 20 for the first time in his career.
In March, he beat Hewitt in the final at Las Vegas for his fifth ATP tour title.
At the first AMS event of the year, Indian Wells, Blake defeated Robredo in the third round and world No. 2 Nadal in the semifinals to reach his first career ATP Masters Series singles final. He would lose in the final to Federer, but by reaching the finals of that event, Blake became the first African-American man since Arthur Ashe to reach the world's top 10.
On clay, Blake defeated former world No. 1 Carlos Moyà in the first round at AMS Hamburg, and then lost to Mario Ancic in the third round.
At the French Open, he took down rising Spaniard Nicolas Almagro in four sets in the second round, to become the last remaining American man at the French. However, in the next round, he was beaten by Frenchman Gaël Monfils in five sets.
To start the grass court season, he made what many considered to be a surprising run at the Stella Artois Championships, reaching the finals, defeating Andy Roddick in the semifinal. He lost to Lleyton Hewitt in the final.
At Wimbledon, Blake progressed to the third round, but lost to Max Mirnyi in five sets.[2]
Blake's first tournament after Wimbledon was at the International Series event at Indianapolis, and he went on to win the singles title by defeating Roddick (for the second time in 2006) in the final. Just by reaching the Indy final, Blake earned enough points to be ranked No. 5 in the world. He also lost in the third round to Marat Safin in Washington D.C., and in the first round in New Haven to Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.
Blake didn't fare so well in the summer's biggest tournaments, losing in the second round to the eventual finalist in both of the summer ATP Masters Series events. At AMS Canada, he fell to Richard Gasquet (who would reach the final that week before losing to Roger Federer), and at AMS Cincinnati he lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero (who lost in the final to Andy Roddick).
At the U.S. Open, Blake reached the quarterfinals where he lost to top seed and defending champion Roger Federer. In that match, Blake managed to win his first set against Federer, winning the third set in a tiebreaker (11-9).
In his debut appearance at the Thailand Open in Bangkok, Blake won his seventh singles title, defeating Jarkko Nieminen in the quarterfinal, Marat Safin in the semifinal, and Ivan Ljubičić for the first time in the final.
Just two weeks later, Blake won his fifth title of 2006, successfully defending his 2005 title in Stockholm, by defeating Jarkko Nieminen in the final.
For the first time in his career, Blake qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. Blake went 2-1 in the Gold Group, defeating world No. 2 Nadal and No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko, but losing, in an inconsequential match, against No. 6 Tommy Robredo. Blake qualified for the semifinals, where he steamrolled defending champion David Nalbandian, 6-4, 6-1. He went on to the final against Federer, but lost the match in three sets. Blake finished 2006 at a career-high World Number 4, and also finished the year as the highest-ranked American tennis player.
[edit] 2007
2007 prepared a great start for Blake, who collected his first title of the year at the Sydney International for second consecutive time. However, he then suffered a disappointing loss in the Round of 16 at the Australian Open, losing to tenth seed and eventual finalist Fernando Gonzalez 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (4). He followed that up with a loss to Tomáš Berdych in Davis Cup play and a second round loss in the SAP Open (San Jose) to #103 ranked Ivo Karlović.
At the 2007 Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas, as the defending champion, he was involved with a deep controversy. It was one of the several tournaments experimenting with the new round robin format [3], and Blake had lost his first match to Evgeny Korolev. Korolev lost his other match to Juan Martin Del Potro. In order for Blake to advance to the quarters, he had to defeat Del Potro in straight sets while losing 5 games or less. This would result in a three-way tie, with Blake losing the fewest games. With Blake leading 6-1 3-1, Del Potro retired. This eliminated Del Potro from the three-way tie as he failed to complete one of his matches. Korolev then moved on to the next round, breaking the tie because he had defeated Blake in their match.
That caused a big uproar among fans, James Blake, and commentators, as they felt James Blake deserved to advance. After a press conference of many hours, the ATP, led by Etienne de Villiers, decided that, since Blake would have met the guidelines the way the match was going, and since neither player knew the consequences of retiring (Del Potro said he would have finished the match had he known), Blake would have advanced anyway. They overruled the tournament guidelines, giving Blake a place in the quarterfinals.
The following morning, De Villiers reversed his reversal deeming that it was unfair to Korolev as you shouldn't change the rules mid-tournament, regardless of what happened. As a result, Korolev re-advanced to the quarterfinals, sending Blake to Indian Wells without a 3rd consecutive title defense. Shortly after this incident, the ATP decided to cancel the round robin format, reverting any tournaments planning a round robin draw to the standard single-elimination draw [4].
Blake worked with Prince to create a new racquet featuring Prince's O3 technology. The endeavor resulted in the Prince O3 Hybrid Tour. However, Blake did not feel comfortable with this racquet, or with the O3 technology. Blake ended his relationship with Prince. He switched to the Dunlop Aerogel 200 for Wimbledon. Blake said, "The new Aerogel racquet technology provides several frame specifications that will suit my game well and give me the confidence to know that I can take my career to new heights." [5]
Roland Garros 2007 was a disappointment for Blake, losing in the first round to Ivo Karlovic 4-6 6-4 7-5 7-5. Blake was one of nine American men to lose in the first round of Roland Garros. This was the first time in the open era where an American had not made it into a Grand Slam second round.
In Wimbledon 2007, James reached the third round, matching his best showing there (2006), but was unable to get past former World Number 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, losing 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6.
During the summer hardcourt season, he advanced to his second career ATP Masters Series event and won a singles title. At AMS Cincinnati, he beat Alejandro Falla, Nicolas Kiefer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Sam Querrey and Nikolay Davydenko en route to the final before falling to Roger Federer. He won the singles title at Penn Pilot in New Haven,CT, and started the North American hardcourt season by reaching the finals at Los Angeles, losing to Radek Stepanek in three sets, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 after having three set points in the first set.
At the 2007 U.S. Open, he won his first career five-set match. It came in the second round against Fabrice Santoro, whom he defeated 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Blake made it to the fourth round, where he lost to No. 10 Tommy Haas in five sets, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 7-6, despite having match points in the fifth set.
Blake and the rest of the US Davis Cup team defeated Sweden in September to reach the finals against Russia, which will be help in Portland, Oregon from November 30-December 2.
James also participated in Madrid and Basel. In Madrid, he fell to former top ten star Mario Ančić in the second round. In Basel, he fell in the second round to Ivo Karlović. However, Blake teamed with former number one doubles player Mark Knowles of the Bahamas to make the final. In the first round, he and Knowles upset U.S. Open champions Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle in three sets. In the semifinals, the team bore match points twelve times, and finally defeated Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett, the second seeds, 7-5 6-7 [12-10] with thirteen needed match points. [2] Their luck, however, was halted by top seeds and top ranked Bob and Mike Bryan, who are Blake's Davis Cup teammates. Blake and Knowles lost 6-1 6-1. After the match, James quoted: "'Yes, they played as well I have seen them play in a while. It’s tough. I have seen them do it to a lot of guys in Davis Cup from the sidelines and know how little fun it is to face them. That’s the reason why they are the best doubles team in the world right now. [At the start of the week] I told Mark I had not won a lot of doubles matches this year, so I was glad to have him get me through a couple of wins. I had a great time and a lot of fun. Getting a chance to play with one of the best doubles players, really ever, was exciting for me. I learnt plenty and hopefully we’ll be better next time.'" [3]
Blake lost in the third round of Paris to Richard Gasquet and thus finished outside the top eight players, losing his chance to defend the points he gained as finalist in the 2006 Tennis Masters Cup.
James Blake won his match in the 2007 Davis Cup finals against Mikhail Youzhny, 6-3, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 (and also against Dmitry Tursunov). Andy Roddick won his match versus Tursunov and Bob and Mike Bryan won the doubles rubber over Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko, sealing the Davis Cup win for the United States.[4][5]
[edit] Career Highlights
- August 5, 2002: Wins his first ATP title -- the doubles title at AMS Cincinnati with Todd Martin
- November, 2002: Finishes the year ranked No. 28 on the ATP Tour
- January, 2003: Reaches the fourth round of the Australian Open, losing to finalist Rainer Schüttler in four sets
- January, 2004: Reaches the fourth round of the Australian Open, losing to finalist Marat Safin in four sets
- March 19, 2006: Reaches his first ATP Masters Series singles final, losing to Roger Federer in the final of AMS Indian Wells
- March 20, 2006: Breaks into the world top ten for the first time - ranked No. 9, moving up from No. 14
- June 17, 2006: Defeats Andy Roddick for the first time (semifinals at Queen's)
- August 21, 2006: Achieves a career-high ranking of No. 5
- November 4, 2006: Secures a spot in the Tennis Masters Cup for the first time in his career
- November 18, 2006: Reaches Masters Cup final in Shanghai, after beating David Nalbandian 6-4, 6-1
- November 19, 2006: Achieves No. 4 ranking, becoming the top-ranked American, despite losing the TMC final against Roger Federer.
- August 19, 2007: Reaches his second career ATP Masters Series singles final (Cincinnati)
[edit] Notable Matches
- 2001 Cincinnati Masters, round of 16: Came close to beating Patrick Rafter on August 9, 2001; at the net afterward, Rafter compliments Blake and says "Now do you believe you can beat someone like me, or even me?"
- 2005 2005 U.S. Open third round: beat Rafael Nadal on September 3, 2005, which was his first win over a Top 10 player in a Grand Slam event.
- 2005 U.S. Open quarterfinals: lost to Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, 6-7(6). Blake dominated Agassi in the first two sets with a break early in the third; however, Agassi adapted to Blake's game and took the match to a fifth set tiebreak where Blake got the early lead, though Agassi would take the match. The inspired play from both men led many to call this one of the greatest matches in US history. The match itself was nominated for an ESPY award.
- 2006 Tennis Channel Open final: defeated Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. It was (and to date still is) the only time Blake has won over the Australian, as Hewitt possesses a 7-1 record[6] advantage in meetings over Blake.
- 2006 2006 U.S. Open quarterfinals: lost to Roger Federer 7-6 (7), 6-0, 6-7 (9), 6-4. Blake took a set from Federer for the first time in his career.
- 2007 2007 U.S. Open second round: on August 30, 2007, James Blake won his first ever 5-set match over Fabrice Santoro, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. It was his tenth 5-set match.
- 2007 U.S. Open fourth round: lost to Tommy Haas despite match points: 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 7-6.
[edit] Personal life
Away from tennis, Blake also enjoys golf, basketball, and baseball. He is a big fan of the New York Mets. Blake was featured on Bravo's second edition of Celebrity Poker Showdown, but lost to Maura Tierney.[7]
Blake appeared in People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue. [8] He once dated Jennifer Scholle[9] and until recently, was dating US Women's Soccer Player Heather Mitts. [10]
He is also good friends with singer/songwriter John Mayer, who also attended Fairfield High School.[11] When Blake was invited by Virginia's Anthem Insurance to do a cancer charity game honoring his late father, he invited John Mayer, Andy Roddick and Gavin DeGraw to perform.[12]
[edit] Tennis Masters Cup singles finals
[edit] Runner-up (1)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 2006 | Shanghai | Image:Flag of Switzerland.svg Roger Federer | 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 |
[edit] ATP Masters Series singles finals
[edit] Runner-up (2)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 2006 | Indian Wells | Image:Flag of Switzerland.svg Roger Federer | 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 |
| 2007 | Cincinnati | Image:Flag of Switzerland.svg Roger Federer | 6-1, 6-4 |
[edit] Career finals (24)
[edit] Singles wins (10)
|
|
[edit] Singles runner-ups (10)
[edit] Doubles wins
[edit] Doubles runner-ups
| No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Partnering | Opponent in the final | Score |
| 1. | 27 February, 2006 | Memphis, U.S. | Hard (i) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Mardy Fish | Image:Flag of South Africa.svg Chris Haggard Image:Flag of Croatia.svg Ivo Karlović | 0-6, 7-5, 10-5 |
| 2. | 28 October, 2007 | Basel, Switzerland | Carpet | Image:Flag of the Bahamas.svg Mark Knowles | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Bob Bryan Image:Flag of the United States.svg Mike Bryan | 6-1, 6-1 |
[edit] Grand Slam singles performance timeline
| Tournament | 1999 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | Career SR | Career Win-Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Slams | ||||||||||
| Australian Open | A | A | 2R | 4R | 4R | 2R | 3R | 4R | 0 / 6 | 13-6 |
| French Open | A | A | 2R | 2R | A | 2R | 3R | 1R | 0 / 5 | 5-5 |
| Wimbledon | A | A | 2R | 2R | A | 1R | 3R | 3R | 0 / 5 | 6-5 |
| U.S. Open | 1R | 2R | 3R | 3R | A | QF | QF | 4R | 0 / 7 | 16-7 |
| Grand Slam SR | 0 / 1 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 23 | 37-22 |
| Tennis Masters Cup | A | A | A | A | A | A | F | A | 0 / 1 | 3-2 |
| ATP Masters Series | ||||||||||
| Indian Wells Masters | A | A | 1R | QF | QF | 3R | F | 3R | 0 / 7 | 15-7 |
| Miami Masters | A | A | 4R | 3R | 1R | 2R | QF | 2R | 0 / 6 | 8-6 |
| Monte Carlo Masters | A | A | 1R | 2R | A | A | A | A | 0 / 2 | 1-2 |
| Rome Masters | A | A | QF | 1R | 1R | A | 1R | 2R | 0 / 5 | 4-5 |
| Hamburg Masters | A | A | 1R | 1R | A | A | 3R | 3R | 0 / 4 | 3-4 |
| Canada Masters | A | A | 2R | 2R | A | A | 2R | 2R | 0 / 3 | 4-3 |
| Cincinnati Masters | A | 3R | 2R | 3R | A | 1R | 2R | F | 0 / 6 | 11-6 |
| Madrid Masters (Stuttgart) | A | A | 1R | 1R | A | A | 2R | 2R | 0 / 4 | 0-4 |
| Paris Masters | A | A | 2R | 2R | A | 2R | 3R | 3R | 1 / 5 | 5-5 |
| ATP Tournaments Won | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | N/A | 10 |
| Year End Ranking | 220 | 73 | 28 | 37 | 97 | 23 | 4 | 13 | N/A | N/A |
[edit] Notes
- ^ "James Blake stats at Tennis Warehouse" Tennis-Warehouse.com (accessed November 19, 2006)
- ^ ATP. "Blake/Knowles Win Basel SF on 13th Match Point", 2007-10-27. Retrieved on 2007-10-28. (English)
- ^ ATP. "Bryan Brothers Capture 10th Title of Stellar Season", ATP, 2007-10-28. Retrieved on 2007-10-28. (English)
- ^ Association of Tennis Professionals. "Roddick, Blake Place USA in Reach of Davis Cup Title", Association of Tennis Professionals, 2007-11-30. Retrieved on [[2007-12-01]]. (English)
- ^ International Tennis Federation. "Davis Cup - World Group 2007 Final Results", International Tennis Federation, 2007-12-02. Retrieved on [[2007-12-05]]. (English)
- ^ Source: [1]
- ^ BravoTV. "Celebrity Poker Showdown Tournament 2" www.bravotv.com (accessed September 3, 2007)
- ^ US Olympic Committee. "James Blake Profile" www.usoc.org (accessed August 21, 2007)
- ^ http://sports.gearlive.com/index.php/sports/category/Tennis
- ^ SI Extra Mustard (2007). "As the Brady Turns" SI.com (accessed August 21, 2007)
- ^ Patrick, Dan (2003). "Outtakes with James Blake" ESPN.com (accessed May 2, 2006)
- ^ Pratt, Jane (2005). "Tennis Great James Blake, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the Virginia Historical Society Announce an Acquisition of Arthur Ashe's Personal Items" Anthem.com (accessed May 2, 2006)
[edit] External links
- jamesblaketennis.com fan site
- ATP Tour profile for James Blake
- Davis Cup profile for James Blake
- Blake Recent Match Results
- Blake World Ranking History
- 'Comback Kid James Blake'
- James Blake ORG Site
- James Blake bio on usolympicteam.com ... includes links to two photo galleries
- Interview with Blake on Forbes Video
- Father Thomas Blake's obituary
- James Blake News Articles
- Men's Vogue interview
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