James Blake Hits Quotations

He's a great player. We've had some really good matches. He hits the ball so clean, we're going to have a lot of points. There's some good shot-making and we both have pretty big serves to get free points.

Tommy's a great player who hits the ball so clean, ... We're both big servers. I look forward to playing him. No matter what his ranking is, he's one of the top players in the world.

After the break, I made a little bit of an adjustment, ... I moved back just a couple of steps, trying to see if I could get looks. If he hits the corner, it doesn't matter where I am standing, it is going to be an ace. I just had to accept that he was going to get his aces...Once I got that first break (in the third set), having the sense it was almost over was great. Having that crowd to front run is great.

I never faced Pete (Sampras) in a match. I think from watching, his is the best serve ever. And he is the only guy that I would probably not take the bet that he would so often offer in practice -- he's down love-40, says '10 bucks, I still hold serve.' I probably wouldn't even take that against him. So many times he would come back and win. He would just put it on the dime. I also wouldn't take the bets when we were just practicing our serves, he put just a tennis ball can on the other side, and says, 'A hundred bucks for who hits more.' That's not a safe bet with him.