James Blake Few Quotations

Olivier and I had a great match in the Davis Cup on clay a few weeks ago, ... It's nice to have a rematch against him on indoor hard.

I think you better check the results again. What's his record against me? I think he's about 8-0. I'm very happy to defer to him as the No. 1. We've called him our Mariano Rivera a few times. He's our closer.

This summer is a little better than last summer, ... I can actually sit here without feeling I am going to fall off the chair. I can actually smile, and, yeah, I definitely feel so much better and I am enjoying it a whole lot. And it does put a few things in perspective and I am just so happy to be playing and now that it is going well and I feel like I'm healthy. I feel like things are starting to go my way, it's such a good feeling.

I've come over a few times and not had much success, which is frustrating. I like playing indoors. I feel really good here even though it's not the same kind of crowds as I have on my side in the United States.

It's going to take time because no matter how good you are or how hard you've worked, there's no substitute for playing matches. I think he needs to get a few matches in, and then once he gets a little bit of confidence in match play, I think he's going to get that ranking right back up there.

Everyone seems to have a connection to me, and that?s such a great feeling. That?s what comes with growing up close to here and going to high school around here and trying to be as friendly as you can to those people around you. It makes for great fans ... even if they do happen to cheer a few times when he double faults. You just kind of grin and bear it.

It will definitely be fun if I get a chance to play him. We have some sort of a history in the fact that we've had a few five-setters, some really close matches.

It was a fun crowd. I was down there in the first two rounds in the first few rounds he was kind of on the back court and hearing the crowd go crazy. It seemed like they were almost a soccer crowd because I don't think they were all real tennis fans at the beginning of these few weeks, but by now I'm sure they are. It really does help and make a big difference when you know you have people cheering for you.

I played his brother a few weeks ago. Both fight very hard. They play great defense. So it tough to put balls away even on indoor hard.

I do feel confident in my game. It's just a matter of putting a few wins together and maybe getting lucky here or there on a few tough points.