James Blake was born on December 28th, 1979, in Yonkers, NY, the son of a black American man and a white British woman. He picked up the sport of tennis at age five alongside his older brother, Thomas (who also played on the professional tour, albeit briefly). The Blake family moved from New York to Connecticut when James was six, and he resided there for most of his formative years. At age 13, he was diagnosed with scoliosis, which necessitated the use of a back brace for nearly five years. After graduating from high school (where he was a classmate and close friend of John Mayer), he attended Harvard University for two years, where he was ranked as the #1 collegiate player in 1999, his sophomore year. After this success, James was encouraged to try his hand at the professional tour.
James' most notable results early on in his career came in two consecutive years at the U.S. Open, where he pushed Lleyton Hewitt to five sets before losing both times. The first match, in the second round in 2001 (where Hewitt went on to win the title), is infamous for an incident in which Hewitt, having been called for multiple foot faults by the same line judge (who was black), began an argument with the chair umpire and said, "look at him. Look at him, and you tell me what the similarity is," which many people took as a comparison between the race of both Blake and the chair umpire. (I remember looking at Hewitt real sideways for years after that happened, but these days, ehhh. Good ol' Rusty is retired now, and seems to have transformed himself into a likable person, so it is what it is.) 2002 saw James moving into the world's top 30 for the first time, and claiming his first career title in Washington, where he beat Andre Agassi in less than an hour, 6-3, 6-4, along the way.
In late 2003, tragedy struck James, as he decided to cut off all of his dreadlocks. Okay, I'm kidding, although that DID happen too. But that pales in comparison with what he had to go through in 2004. He was practicing that May for a tournament on clay in Rome and broke his neck due to an accidental collision with the net post. Furthermore, his father died of cancer that May, and as a result of all of the stress he had been going through, James contracted shingles, which paralyzed part of his face and affected his balance and vision. Needless to say, he didn't play much this year, and his ranking suffered as a result, with retirement seriously being considered as an option.
In 2005, Blake had a career renaissance. His ranking slipped to #210 at one point in the year, but he kept working hard. He needed a wild card to get into the U.S. Open, but won his first ATP title in three years the week before the tournament began. Ranked #49 heading in, he defeated several higher-ranked players to reach the quarterfinals, including then-world #2 Rafael Nadal in the third round (I will have you know, that is literally the ONLY match in my longtime fandom of Rafa where I've EVER rooted against him). In the quarters, he faced the then 35-year-old legend Andre Agassi, and despite going up two sets and a break against him, James was unable to claim victory. Despite serving for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set, Agassi ended up winning the match in a final set tiebreak. Still, the match was considered a classic, and James won tons of respect for his remarkable comeback, finishing the year #23 in the world (all the way from #97 the previous year).
2006 was the finest year of James' career - he won five titles, reached the finals of Indian Wells and the ATP World Tour Finals, repeated his U.S. Open quarterfinal appearance (losing to the eventual champion, none other than Roger Federer, of course) and became the first black American man since Arthur Ashe to reach the world's top 10, peaking at #4 at the very end of the year. 2007 and 2008 were also pretty successful years, with James finishing in or near the world's top 10 both times. Thereafter, however, the wheels began to fall off a bit, with James struggling due to both injury problems and the emergence of the Big Four. He never reached a tournament final after 2009, nor did he ever have a deep run in a major again, but he played on, gamely sticking it out despite injury concerns all the way up to 2013, where he retired after losing his first round match at the U.S. Open to Ivo Karlovic.
In post-tennis life, James has married and become a father, but is perhaps best known for an unfortunate incident during the 2015 U.S. Open, where he was tackled to the ground by police and falsely arrested while simply standing outside of the hotel he was staying in - he was confused for another suspect and was given no attempt at identifying himself. (All brothers look alike, remember.) Since that incident went down, James has become one of the more outspoken people in tennis in regards to social injustices, something which I can always appreciate, seeing as how the vast majority of American players these days appear to be Trump supporters. :( Oy vey. Anyhow, props to you, James, for an excellent career. I remember being frustrated as hell with you back in the day for never having a bigger breakthrough, but in hindsight, you really did the damn thing, and I'm glad to have watched you play for the vast majority of your career.
No comments:
Post a Comment