Blake’s
Net Gains
By
Eleanor Preston
A freak accident, family tragedy and a debilitating virus
all conspired to make James Blake's 2004 season a nightmare,
but now the 24-year-old is healthier, wiser, and he thinks,
a better player than ever before.
 “...and
that’s when I broke my neck.”
It’s
not the sort of sentence you hear every day but the way
James Blake casually throws it into conversation suggests
he has more than come to terms with the freak accident
that threatened to stop him from walking, let alone playing
pro tennis.
Blake
was chasing down a drop shot on a practice court at the
Foro Italico in May last year when he ran, head first,
into the net post and fractured vertebrae in his neck.
It began a chain of horrible events that included the loss
of his father and having to cope with an energy-sapping
virus—all of which sidelined the American for eight
months and threatened to curtail his career before he’d
turned 25. For Blake, 2004 proved to be the sort of year
that would have finished off lesser men but he is not the
sort of fellow to let a broken neck slow him down. Now
returned to full fitness, he is already talking excitedly
about returning to where he was before that net post got
in his way.
“I
always try to look on the bright side,” Blake said
from his home in Florida. “I was very lucky with
hitting it 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 and very painful but I got
through it and now I appreciate my health a little bit
more than I did before.”
Blake
grew up with scoliosis of the spine so severe that he spent
two years of his childhood in a neck brace. As a result,
he was never a man to take his charmed life as a tennis
player for granted but his experiences have fired his hunger
and given him a deeper understanding of just how much he
loves the job he very nearly lost.
He
is delighted to be back on the tour and he proved it with
an exuberant display of free hitting to lead Lleyton Hewitt
by a set and a break in the second round of the Australian
Open this past January. To those watching, it was a reminder
of just how talented and engaging a performer the New Yorker
can be. It also brought home to Blake just how much he
had longed to be back, taking on big players in big arenas
and giving them a run for their money.
“It
was exactly what I missed for eight months, and once you
get a little taste of it you want to keep having it,” he
said. “I missed it a lot and getting back to it was
pretty exciting, especially as it was against a top player
in his home country and with huge crowd watching. That’s
about as good as it gets in this sport and that’s
where I want to get back to.”
With
a ranking outside the top 100, Blake knows he will have
his work cut out to recapture his place in the upper echelons
of the rankings but there is no doubt in his voice when
he talks about his future. He is keen to work his way back
into Patrick McEnroe’s Davis Cup team, an ambition
fired by his experience of joining the squad during their
semifinal against Belarus in Charleston last September.
 “Davis
Cup is always in the back of my mind because I love it
so much,” he said. “I love being part of a
team and I love those guys. Andy and Mardy and the Bryans
are some of my best friends on tour. Being with them in
Charles-ton made me realize that there is a big difference
between just hanging out with the team and really contributing
to the team and winning the big matches. You have that
satisfaction of knowing that the team couldn’t have
won the tie without you. That’s such a great feeling
and one that I really want to have again. That’s
just another motivation for me.”
As
if he needed more. “I feel like I’m started
back at square one and that’s a good feeling to have,” he
said. “I feel like one of my best years was when
I first broke through. You go on to the court with the
attitude of needing to prove yourself, to prove that you
belong on the tour, and I now feel that I have to do that
again. I want to get back to where I feel I belong, but
there’s no way anyone’s just going to give
that to me. So I’m going to have to go out there
and prove it all over again. It wasn’t a fluke that
I got up towards the top of the game before. I want to
get back there again.”
If
his annus horribilis last season and the run in with the
net post have given Blake a heightened sense of perspective
about his career, then he admits there are some lessons
he may never learn—chasing down drop shots being
one of them.
“I’d
like to think I got a little smarter and a little bit more
conservative, but since that injury, I still run into backstops,” he
admitted, a little sheepishly. “I still dive for
balls—I did one against Lleyton at the Australian
Open and cut open my hand and my knee—and I get caught
up in the side netting when I run for the ball indoors.
I’ve got a little bit better at taking my foot off
the accelerator in practice but it’s not in my nature
to really slow down.
“It’s
just instinct for me to go for every shot and go out 100
percent.” |
