James Blake’s Tennis Career at a Glance
Born on December 28th, 1979, in New York, USA, James Riley Blake’s early tussles with tennis came at the age of five when he began to battle it out with his brother, Thomas. At 13, Blake was discovered to have chronic scoliosis, an affliction that necessitated the teenager to don a back brace for a large part of the day until he turned 18.
By 1999, the American had enrolled at the Saddlebrook Academy in Florida to polish his tennis skills and entered professional circuit the same year in June. In 2000, Blake enjoyed his first taste of success as a professional by winning the Challenger titles at Houston and Rancho Mirage.
The following year Blake landed another Challenger level title at Knoxville in addition to making it to the final at the Waikoloa Challenger where he bowed out to fellow American Andy Roddick. 2001 also marked Blake’s first appearance at the Davis Cup.
In 2002, Blake clinched the Waikoloa Challenger trophy and booked his place in his initial ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) final at the Memphis event. In addition to making it to the final of the Newport contest, Blake won the ATP title in Washington after defeating Andre Agassi, Alex Corretja and Paradorn Srichaphan en route to the win.
He also seized his first doubles ATP trophy at the 2002 Cincinnati event. The following year Blake took the second doubles title of his career at Scottsdale and made it to the final of the Long Island showdown, where he fell to Srichaphan.
Injury ruled Blake out of action for much of the first half of the 2004 season. His progress for the remainder of the year was further thwarted when he contracted Zoster and his predicament was further aggravated when his father, Thomas, died from cancer. Blake nevertheless fought against the odds to take three doubles titles that year in San Jose, Houston and Munich.
The American inaugurated the 2005 campaign, still recuperating from the physical and psychological ghosts of the previous year. After making a slow start to the season, Blake fought his way to the final of International Series contest in Washington, D.C. where fellow countryman, Andy Roddick toppled him.
The American then triumphed at the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament after out classing Feliciano Lopez in the ultimate clash. He further consolidated his position by taking the year’s Stockholm title, and concluded the 2005 campaign ranked world number 22 in the ATP standings.
Blake made a winning start to the 2006 run after taking the title at Sydney. He then went on to take his second ATP winner’s trophy of the year at the Las Vegas event, where he got the better of former world number one Lleyton Hewitt.
The American then took three more ATP titles that year by winning the International Series at Indianapolis, the Thailand Open in Bangkok and the Stockholm Open trophy in addition to making it to the finals of several other events. That year Blake also made it to the first ATP Masters Series singles’ final of his career and managed to defeat world number two Rafael Nadal on two occasions.
After ending his highly successful 2006 season ranked world number four in the ATP standings, Blake commenced the 2007 campaign with a win in Sydney. He then took the singles’ titles at the ATP Masters Series event and the Pilot Pen contest in New Haven, Connecticut. Blake was also pivotal in leading the USA to its 2007 Davis Cup triumph, where his country overcame Russia in the final.
In 2008 Blake made it to the finals of the Delray Beach and River Oaks International tournament events and made waves after defeating world number one Roger Federer at the Beijing Olympics quarterfinals. The following year, Blake clinched the Estoril Open trophy before parting with his long time trainer Brian Barker and joining hands with Kelly Jones instead.
Blake’s 2010 campaign had been less than smooth as he remains dodged by recurring knee problems and declared at one point that he might withdraw from the professional tour if the complications persisted.
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