Known for his fearless forehands, James Blake now concedes he once felt a fear of flying.
It wasn't vertigo, but a bag check that sometimes sent shivers down his spine. Once down to four racquets without a ready replacement, Blake spent some time stressing the prospect of lost luggage.
"If I flew on a smaller plane and they made you check your racquets at the gate, I'd get pretty nervous about the racquets getting there," says Blake.
The American, who used Dunlop during his peak seasons, spent years looking for a suitable replacement and finally found it in the new Donnay Pro One. The 97-square inch racquet will go on sale in early December with a 16 x 19 string pattern, but Blake has been playing with a customized version much of the year.
Blake learned to play tennis at the Harlem Tennis Center and returns to New York City to host his seventh annual Serving For A Cure charity concert event at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 28. Actor Justin Long will emcee the event, which features a musical performance by Brett Dennen, a cocktail hour with athletes and celebrities, a fast-serve contest and an auction with items including a Venus Williams-autographed racquet and Dave Matthews Band tickets. The event supports the Thomas Blake Sr. Memorial Research Fund, which Blake established to support cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer. All proceeds from the event benefit the fund, named in honor of Blake’s father, who died of gastric cancer in 2004.
“It makes it a lot more meaningful for me to have it in New York because I have so many family and friends here,” says Blake, whose Foundation has raised more than $2 million for the cause. “A lot of people who knew my father can attend and that means a lot seeing so many people are still helping out, still thinking of him and still speaking his name seven years later. It's emotional: I remember him so fondly and have so many great memories of him and to be in that room and hear other people talk about my father and their fathers as well puts a smile on your face.”
For more information and to order tickets to Serving For A Cure, visit ?www.jamesblakefoundation.com or call (305) 461-9296. We caught up with Blake to chat about his gear, game and charity.
TENNIS.com: Why did you select Donnay? What was the process of customizing this racquet?
James Blake: I'd been looking for a new racquet probably about two years. I was trying pretty much everything out there and and couldn't find a racquet. Since Donnay had been out of the racquet business for a while, it wasn't one of my first thoughts. They let me try a few racquets. I was very happy right away and they were also great about making some little tweaks to the racquet to customize it the way I wanted so that I felt comfortable out on the court. There really isn't a huge difference between a lot of the top players so a little bit of a bad feeling can really affect your game negatively. I felt comfortable almost immediately with Donnay.
TENNIS.com: What are the specs of the Donnay you use?
James Blake: It's 357 grams unstrung; that's the weight I've been using for some time. When I started out on tour, I added weight very slowly, because if you do it too quickly it can be dangerous to your shoulder and elbow. When I was about 22, I would add about two grams at a time and play with that for a week or two and then add two more grams, and gradually it became a process of adding weight. Eventually, I got to the point where I felt, 'If I add anymore I'm not going to be able to get the racquet through the hitting zone quick enough.' I use Luxilon Big Banger (strings), which I've used for most of my career because I love the way it feels.
TENNIS.com: You had a big win against Juan Martin del Potro in Stockholm last month. What did that do for you confidence and how can you build on that going into 2012?
James Blake: That really did help me because del Potro is one of the best players in the world, so that was a great feeling. The only difference is that I've been healthy. My knees felt good though toward the end of the fall the pounding started to take a toll again. I felt really good about it and the direction I'm going. I pulled out of Paris to give my knees some rest, but I feel really good about the fact I know I can play that well again. The difference between the top guys and guys ranked a little lower is consistency. I think if I can stay healthy that's gonna be the difference, because I still have the ability to play well—it's just not all the time: I don't have that confidence to do it day in and day out. If I stay healthy and I'm able to train the way I was training toward the end of this summer, then I think the confidence will come back.
TENNIS.com: You've come back from serious injuries in the past—how do those comebacks help now, or does each comeback present its own challenges?
James Blake: Each one is different especially considering how unique my injuries were. Having a sickness where you don't know if you're going to play again and having a broken neck aren't usually the normal injuries for tennis. This one, I have patellar tendinitis, is more common to tennis. But they're each different because they came at different times in your career. When I got injured in '04, I'd had a pretty good career, but I hadn't had the success like getting to number four in the world, reaching the finals of the year-end championships. When you're coming back at 31 years old you understand in no sense of the word are you in the middle of your career—you're at the back end of your career. So you're trying to get as much as you can out of it and it changes your options: If I were to have patellar tendinitis when I was 22, I'd be looking at the possibility of surgery that might keep me out for six months, but surgeries that are going to keep me out six months to a year are not plausible at this point.
TENNIS.com: You played Roger Federer in the 2006 Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai final and you played Novak Djokovic in March. How do you compare the level of Federer in '06 to Djokovic's level now?
James Blake: They've both had exceptional seasons. In my book, right now Roger has to go down as the greatest of all time. Obviously Djokovic is still in the early stages of his dominance. If he can continue it, he can possibly give Roger a run, but right now, in my mind, Roger is the greatest of all time. That '06 Masters Cup final was the best I was playing; I beat Rafa, Nalbandian and Davydenko, and at that time I felt when I was playing my best I could beat anyone in the world. I went into that final and Roger showed me he had a whole other gear. That's one of the few times in my career where I've gone out on the court and played my best and didn't stand a chance of beating Roger that day.
TENNIS.com: How do you assess Donald Young and Ryan Harrison? What's their potential?
James Blake: I think Donald's got a ton of talent and it sometimes takes guys like that a little while to figure how to play because they have so many options. He's doing a great job; the only thing I would try to help him with is with his training and playing with guys who are going to beat him more consistently. Getting him down at Saddlebrook with me or down with Andy [Roddick] in Austin or somewhere he can practice with top level guys consistently. I think that makes a big difference, because you learn so much from playing with guys that you need to play your absolute best against to beat. [John] Isner's on the right track; he's already been Top 20 and I think he has a chance to be in the Top 10 and really wreak havoc in Grand Slams, because no one wants to play a guy that serves the way he does and can be as aggressive as he wants on the return game, because he's so comfortable holding serve. Harrison is a good player; he's got the best attitude and as a result he's gonna get the most out of his talent. He's willing to work, he's curious to learn, he's got real fight in him so he's going to keep improving.