The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Blame it on country, says James Blake

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 28, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Blame it on country, says James Blake

WIMBLEDON: Slumped in his seat, James Blake struggled to explain another forlorn trip to Wimbledon. Then he offered a suggestion: perhaps his country was to blame.

Americans, he asserted, just aren’t comfortable on grass courts. Or clay for that matter.

Pete Sampras won seven Wimbledon titles and would argue the point, but Blake was speaking for the current crop of players.

Blake has never advanced beyond the third round at the All England Club.

This year, he didn’t even make it that far, losing 6-3, 6-7(8), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the second round on Thursday to 32-year-old German Rainer Schuettler.

“A lot of it has to do with the footing,” Blake said. “I’ve realised I’m not the same player when I don’t have my feet under me.

“Some of these guys are much better at keeping their balance and not thinking about the pushing off and the turning. That’s why I don’t think a lot of Americans are good on grass or clay,” he said, “we don’t have the sure footing. I think it shows here a lot.”

Superstitious siblings

Dinara Safina doesn’t want to jinx her brother’s Wimbledon run after Marat Safin ousted No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic in the second round.

“I’m superstitious. So from the first match I didn’t watch him,” she said. “I wasn’t even following the score because I was practicing at that time, and suddenly I finished the practice and I was walking and one girl goes, ‘yeah, your brother is winning.’

“I’m like, ‘winning what? Like a set?’ she said, ‘No, two sets to love and break up in the third.’ Suddenly I went on court, and it was already 5-2 and match point. It was a nice surprise, so I don’t want to watch him.”

That self-imposed exile applies right through the tournament.

“I never watch his Grand Slam finals,” said ninth-seeded Safina, who beat Hsieh Su-wei 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday. “We don’t go to watch each other. We have completely different lives.”

Safin, a former No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam winner, said he didn’t go to see Safina in the French Open final earlier in the month because his sister “didn’t send the charter.”

Unlocking glory

Just because he’s a household name in Britain, which hasn’t produced a Wimbledon men’s champion in 72 years, doesn’t mean Andy Murray can knock on any door and expect to get in.

“The day before my first match I actually got locked out of my apartment, had no keys to get in,” he said.

While Murray was gearing up to face Fabrice Santoro on Tuesday, his girlfriend Kim Sears had gone into central London with his set of keys.

“I kind of read the situation early and I decided to stay here and I made a couple of calls,” Murray said, retelling the story after his second-round win Thursday over Xavier Malisse.

“I was here for probably about an hour-and-a-half extra than I would have liked to have been. I struggled to get back that day.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport