Article

  • Blake defends his noisy fans in US Open defeat

    9/1/08 12:43 AM | Johan Lindahl
    - James Blake was searching for solace from his wild bunch of fans known as the J Block after going down in straight sets to good Florida friend Mardy Fish at the US Open.

    The ninth-seeded Blake, whose game has crumbled since beating Roger Federer in the Olympic quarter-finals, brushed off any criticism of his blue shirt-clad rowdy cheer squad.

    “These are some of my best friends, they're the ones probably the only people in the word besides my mother who can console me right now and put a smile on my face”.

    Blake's performance against Fish produced more heartbreak for a player who defines the term “patchy”.

    He says he and his posse go back a long way, to his neck injury in 2004 at least. “They were guys around when I wasn't feeling great. When I didn't know if I would play tennis again, they were the ones cooking me dinner and playing cards with me and getting me out of house and trying to make me smile.

    ”In 2005 when I was coming back in New Haven, so close to where I grew up, they all wanted to come watch“.

    Blake said that the concept exploded at the 2005 pre-Open event in nearby New Haven in his native Connecticut.

    ”The tournament director) came up with the name. It seems like when I was the underdog everyone was very positive about them. Now when I'm a favorite it seems like people are sometimes down on them“.

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