Quotes by James Blake

“I never faced Pete (Sampras) in a match. I think from watching, his is the best serve ever. And he is the only guy that I would probably not take the bet that he would so often offer in practice -- hes down love-40, says 10 bucks, I still hold serve. I probably wouldnt even take that against him. So many times he would come back and win. He would just put it on the dime. I also wouldnt take the bets when we were just practicing our serves, he put just a tennis ball can on the other side, and says, A hundred bucks for who hits more. Thats not a safe bet with him.”

“Hes top 20 in the world for a reason,”

“At the beginning of the year, I probably wouldnt have won a match like this.”

“Its just amazing, ... I really couldnt have dreamed it to be any better at the beginning of the week.”

“If my legs start going at all, the crowd will be my legs for a little while,”

“Still seems like a dream come true. Never seemed possible at the beginning of this week. It couldnt have been more perfect to do it in front of my friends and family. I know theres going to be a little bit of celebrating in Fairfield.”

“Once I got that first break (in the third set), having the sense it was almost over was great. Having that crowd to front run is great.”

“This couldnt have been better preparation for that match, ... He (Lopez) has one of if not the best lefty serves out there. If he doesnt, Rusedski probably does. I am looking at the two best lefty serves back to back and getting a win against one could correlate to getting a win (against) another.”

“Those guys carried me through. I had a lot of tough three-set matches this week, and they were my legs in those third sets.”