Blake's seven and up

THE media liaison officer and James Blake are having a quick confab. The American has just triumphed over countryman Andy Roddick at the Stella Artois Championships, and has a final to prepare for. He has also just completed a round of press conferences with print and radio journalists and television crews, and is ready for the off.

Originally from New York and now based in Tampa, Florida, the chances are that Blake has never heard of this journal. The room has emptied of journalists, and unaware that he is being observed, he offers a weary and reluctant shrug when reminded that this sit-down had been arranged for a few days. Instead of a big-time strop, though, he pulls up a chair, hand extended, a smile transforming his features. "Hi, pleased to meet you," he says. Of course, it's a fib, but it's pretty convincing.

The greeting, and the interview that follows, underline why, when Blake turned professional in 1999, he was hailed as a marketing dream. Young, articulate, charismatic and, perhaps more pertinently, an African-American face that magazines were happy to splash across covers which teenage girls could use to decorate walls. And he could play a bit.

Seven years on, he can play a lot. Instead of rattling around the Top 100, in the past few months he has broken into the Top 10, the first African-American male to do so since Arthur Ashe in 1980. But so much has happened to him in the intervening period that the tennis stats are almost secondary. The fact that he is even playing is the amazing detail.

In 2004 he experienced a year that would have finished lesser mortals. But bizarrely, those 12 months have been the making of the 26-year-old player.

In May that year, Blake was chasing down a drop shot in practice when he ran, head first, into the net post and fractured vertebrae in his neck. It was the beginning of a horror show, which included the loss of his father and having to cope with an energy-sapping virus, which caused the temporary paralysis of one side of his face.

The tribulations were always going to prompt one of two responses. He could surrender to the woe, a defeated man, a pro tennis player who had never quite lived up to the promise and the hype, or he could return to the game revitalised.

"I always try to look on the bright side," Blake says of that period. "I was very lucky with hitting the post at the angle that I did. The doctor said the impact was so great that, if I had hit the top of my head, I definitely wouldn't have been walking again. Having that time off also meant I could be with my father before he died, and so it was very fortunate in that way.

"I've tried to find the silver lining in all of this. It was a very difficult experience, very painful, but I got through it."

Blake is no quitter. He proved that to himself when he was 13. Diagnosed with severe curvature of the spine, which forced him to wear a back brace 18 hours a day for two years, he refused to give up on his dream of pro tennis. He has spent the past 18 months proving it to the rest of the world. Ranked as low as 210 in April 2005, at the year-end he was in the Top 25, having won two ATP titles and given his career-best Grand Slam performance reaching the quarter-finals at the US Open. It earned him the title of ATP Comeback Player of the Year, but that was just for starters.

By the end of April 2006, he had won two more ATP titles, in Sydney and Las Vegas, made the third round at the Australian Open and helped the USA to a first-round Davis Cup victory over Romania by winning both his single matches. It was enough to propel him into the Top 10.

The way that he has been playing, there is no reason to expect a tumble back down the pecking order any time soon. In previous years, he has not looked particularly at home away from his natural hard-court habitat but, having survived this spring's clay season, the genial American has grown to love the grass courts of England. A finalist at Queen's Club, having beaten three-times winner Roddick in dazzling style in the semis, he lost out only to Lleyton Hewitt. The transformation has him ranked a career-high seventh in the world, and seeded eighth going into Wimbledon.

But there has been no major shake-up to his game, just a few tweaks. The real difference is in his mental approach.

"I feel a little more confident, and I feel really good about being able to play defence. I used to feel like that I had to press and really attack people early, and now I don't see it that way. I'm happy to wait for my chances, the right chances, to win points, and that's a huge difference.

"I'm a little more mature and a little more calm out on the court, because I have realised how quickly everything can be taken away, that this is a finite career, and I want to enjoy every moment on the court and do my best in every match. Whether I win or lose, I always remember that most people don't get the chance to go out for their job and play in front of 10,000, have fans and hear kids screaming their name, and I have to appreciate that, and now that I do, I'm really enjoying it.

"When you are having a good time at your job, then you are going to be a much more satisfied and better worker."

Studious as well as industrious, he made use of his time on the sidelines to identify minor glitches.

"It's really so hard to overhaul your game. Almost no-one has completely overhauled their game, so it's just tiny little things. For me, it was my positioning when playing defence and being able to sight the ball a little better, and working on my serve just a little bit, but other than that it's just tons and tons of repetition and feeling a little more confident in my backhand.

"When I was sick, I would watch the videos for a little bit, and I was able to see that the times I was missing my backhand the most was when I was just blocking it and being content to just push one in, and then I would miss, but now I have to go out there and be confident enough to go after it the way Roger [Federer] does or Tommy Haas does, and by doing that I find I have been missing even less. So, that's been very effective for me, and I think a lot of the guys have noticed that it's not as much of a weakness as it used to be."

Neither is his game on grass, which will be pleasing his Mum, Betty. She was raised in England, and most years a holiday to Banbury is squeezed into the schedule. In the past that was the best thing about Wimbledon. Now, though, her son is looking forward to the tennis.

"It's always a time when my Mom comes over, and there's so much tradition, but I had never felt I was going to have too much success on grass. But this year I feel so much better, and I feel I can have that success, and hopefully I can have my Mom smiling in that box in the second week of Wimbledon. That would be a thrill like I never dreamed I would be able to have.

"What happened to me changed my tennis career, but it also changed my life. Now I'm more focused on the good times and being happy and the things that are most important, which I have now realised isn't winning or losing a tennis match. The bigger thing for me was that when I was down my friends were there to pick me up, and now I'm up and doing great, they are still there to appreciate that with me."

The happy outlook should not be mistaken for weakness in Blake. More relaxed, he is also more determined to succeed. He sets no particular targets other than continuous self-improvement. Tennis may be just his job, but it's one in which he would love to excel.

Given their recent form, it's not inconceivable that Blake could usurp Andy Roddick as the highest-ranked American. If he does, he says that he is better prepared for the hype that would accompany such promotion. In the past, as model agencies and chat shows tried to book him, he was hesitant at being thrust in the spotlight. Not now.

"I am so much more comfortable with it all now. When I first came up, I didn't have the confidence, and I didn't believe in myself or think that I was worthy of all the attention and all the hype that was going on, but now I don't worry about it. If I'm not good enough, then I'm not good enough.

"That's fine with me, and I can still sleep at night and hold my head high knowing that I did my best. I have so much confidence in my game now. I know that, no matter what, some out there are going to say that I am better than I ever am, and some will say that I'm worse than I ever am, and I can't make all of them right.

"I have better perspective. I'm still a competitor, so every loss hurts, and I'm pretty upset in the locker-room for an hour or two, but once I realise the significance or, actually, the insignificance of it, that I still have my family or my friends around me, then I just try to take it in my stride and think about what I can do to change it."

He says that's usually as simple as getting back on the practice court, and working a bit harder.

For the time being, he just wants to return to his rented Wimbledon home and to rest. So, with our time up, he stands and offers his hand. "It was good to meet you," he says, flashing another smile.

Again, it's convincing, but then these days, so much about the guy is. The difference is, as opponents will verify, it's definitely not a PR stunt out on court.