Article

  • Olympic blunder still burns James Blake

    8/31/08 4:08 AM | Johan Lindahl
    - James Blake is still blistered by the controversial Olympic loss which denied him a medal in Beijing. “Whatever gets him to sleep at night is fine”, he said of Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, who beat him in a controversial semi-final which turned on an umpiring call.

    Blake lost a chance at victory when the Chilean said that he could not tell if a ball had touched his racket at a crucial moment, saying he was too tired at that point to feel anything.

    The tide eventualy turned against Blake, who suffered the defat but cannot let it go. “If he says after three hours he can't feel a ball hitting his racquet, then apparently every fifth set he's ever played he can't feel the ball”, said the American.

    “Whatever he wants to say or needs to say, that's up to him. It's the past. If you let someone else get to you in the past you're not dealing with the present”.

    Blake put a bright face on the remainder of his Beijing experience as the ranking American man in the field after the absence of Andy Roddick.

    “You're in a stadium full of 20,000 people - I'm not going to let one point change my Olympic experience.

    ”I wouldn't change it for anything. I wish I had gotten the medal to bring home to the States, but I can hold my head high saying I did everything I could“.

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Comments

This match promised great things but Blake clearly cannot let go of the Bejing incident and lack-lustre is the only way to describe his performance tonight. The crowd must be feeling a bit cheated after the hype since Fish seems to be having no problem holding his friend at bay.

ed251137 , 8/31/08 5:31 AM


There is definitely some scar tissue. Blake was so sluggish his fans must have felt like shaking him. But all credit to Mardy, even surviving his tightening up when trying to serve it out.

sstay , 8/31/08 6:04 AM


Poor blake, I hope he snaps out of it by start of next season. Not nice to be carrying such baggage.

tenstar , 8/31/08 7:57 AM



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