Q. A long way from Stanislas Wawrinka, a year ago today?

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. Seems a long way away from a lot of things I was doing last year, from Tunica, from Forest Hills, from just everywhere I was last year. But I also know that it's not that far away. Any time you can get injured, just lose some confidence, things don't go your way, you're right back in the challengers.

I'm hoping I keep moving forward, keep progressing. I feel like I'm getting better, especially on clay. Hopefully that continues.

But luckily I had those experiences last year to keep me ‑‑ hopefully keep me grounded at this point and not let me get way too far ahead of myself and start thinking that I'm owed any of this 'cause it's fun being a part of this and it's fun being where I am right now.

Q. It seemed like there were two key elements today: one was you came out of the gate very quickly, you were ready to play from the first point, and when you had your breakpoint opportunities, you did convert them. Can you comment on both those things?

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, well, I played Paradorn before. Two times ago, we played in Stockholm, he came out kind of similar, making a lot of mistakes in the first set. But I also know he turned it around very quickly. Even though I started out well, I wanted to make sure to finish well. That's the most important.

I knew he was going to turn it around. It wasn't going to be an easy match or it was going to be one of those 0, 1 and 1, or anything like that, I knew that. He did pick it up after that. When he wasn't playing so well, I kind of did my best to keep the ball in the court, make sure I'm putting pressure on him until he does start playing well. He did in the second set. I had to adjust, start going for a little more, creating a little more on my own. The breakpoints, that's just something that ‑‑ I told myself before the match that ‑‑ I looked at some of the stats of the other matches, guys have 15, 20 breakpoints. On clay courts, you're going to get more chances. If you can convert on a lot of those chances, then you're probably doing pretty well. I just wanted to really concentrate on those and also to keep going for my shots, not say, This might be my only breakpoint, I really need to take care of it, and get a little tentative. I was still going after my shots on breakpoints. That's one of the keys. If you keep playing your game that got you to breakpoint, you're probably going to have a better chance of winning those.

Q. Can you put Nadal's streak into perspective.

JAMES BLAKE: It's pretty incredible. I mean, there aren't many streaks in tennis that I think are ‑‑ that have seemed unbeatable. Roger's hard court streak, and this clay court streak, in my ‑‑ I mean, I'm feeling like that's in this generation where I'm a part of this. And being around these guys is incredible. What they're doing may not be matched. It may be similar to a Joe DiMaggio streak where it doesn't seem like it's ever going to get broken.

53 matches is incredible at this level because you can't be ‑‑ to win 53 matches in a row, you can't be a little bit better than the rest of the field. You have to be so far above and beyond. There's so many days you come out and you're not a hundred percent, you're 95%, you're 98%. He's been able to win every one of those. He's been down match points to Roger. I'm sure at times he's been down a set and come back. Just keep winning against guys ‑‑ I mean, guys are good on clay. There's so many good clay‑courters I see in this draw, and he's beaten almost every one of them in the last year. It's just amazing at his age, too, to come out here. Maybe it's better that he's still young doing it. He probably doesn't even ‑‑ I know he does know the history, but maybe ‑‑ he might not realize just how incredible a feat it is. That's something that might work to his advantage.

Maybe I'll have to keep reminding him if I get a chance to play him. Try to put a little more pressure on him. It's incredible what he's doing. He has been a great guy, a great sport. I'm happy that ‑‑ the guys at the top of our game right now are also classy guys. I'm happy for that. There's nothing really to cut them down for.

Q. In today's match you had a couple of hard court guys going at it on a different surface. Your next round is Almagro who has had one of the best springs on clay. Talk about that.

JAMES BLAKE: It's going to be interesting. I'm really excited to play because it's going to be kind of a test to see how I do against the best clay‑courters. Obviously, I'd rather play, you know, in the quarterfinals or semifinals or something. But second round, it will be a great way to find out how good I am against another clay courter. Like you said, we played kind of hard court tennis today with Paradorn kind of ripping forehands, going after his first serve. I think the next round will be much more ‑‑ a lot more spin, a lot more sliding, a lot more defense, just a little bit more normal clay court tennis.

It will be interesting to see how good I've gotten at that because I feel like I've improved so much since last year against Wawrinka, and even this year against Serra. Since then I feel like I've improved in two or three weeks. I hope I keep learning. If I have to learn during that match, hopefully I can put it into effect right away and get a win out of it.

I'm excited to play one of the best clay‑courters and see how well I can do. I also know that he's young. Hopefully this is a big match for him where he's playing a guy that's top 10. Maybe that can have an effect on his mentality. I'm sure he's hungry to beat a top 10 player. I have to try to match that intensity. That's going to be something that I didn't do the first time I had success on tour, and this time around I think I'm doing a better job of it.

Q. Do you come in here as a different mental player this year because you are a top 10 guy, because you do have a really good year behind you? Do you have more expectations of yourself performance‑wise?

JAMES BLAKE: I think I'm different mentally. I don't know if I have different expectations. My expectations are still the same as they were in Rome, to keep getting better. In Hamburg I felt like I did that. I just didn't close out one match. But I felt like I was playing really well.

So coming in here, I don't have a different expectation. I do feel different mentally. I feel like I'm much stronger when things are going badly. Today there was wind. It drizzled a little. The conditions I didn't think were the best. The wind was swirling, it was changing directions. That's always difficult. I don't let those things bother me as much any more. If I'm down, I try not to hang my head. I try not to let people know that I'm down, and just get right back into it. It has an effect. It gets me right back in the match. If I'm up, I try to just kind of stay focused and stay calm and not worry about the finish line, worry about kind of the process of winning each point. I definitely think I'm better mentally. Now being top 10 against guys I know they're hungry, like I said, I have to kind of match that intensity. That's something that I feel like I've done a good job with so far, and hopefully I can continue to do that.

Q. You mentioned you want to keep getting better. How do you do that?

JAMES BLAKE: Well, for me on clay, the first week in Rome, I was sliding all over the place. My movement was pretty poor, I would say. Then in Hamburg, I managed to do a much better job of kind of creating points the way I wanted to, so I wasn't as caught off guard, I wasn't changing direction as much. Against Serra, I felt like I was the one kind of forcing the issue. Before I knew it on ‑‑ on hard courts, that's okay, I can get away with it. A lot of those shots are winners. But when guys are so good at playing defense and the courts are slower, you can't do that. I managed to kind of be a little more patient, wait for my chances and then go after my winners.

That's what I'm doing much better now. Also not getting, like I said before, the mentality of it is not getting frustrated. There's going to be breaks. I think I did a great job in Hamburg against Andy Murray. I got broken I think three or four times and still managed to win the match pretty comfortably just because each time I got broken, I didn't get down on myself, and came back and broke him almost every time.

Kind of doing things like that is going to improve my game. I'm learning against each clay court player I play. I played Ljubicic last week. I learned something. Against Moya, I learned, you know, just kind of how to win those matches. Hopefully I'll learn against another one of the best clay‑courters in the world on whenever I play, Wednesday or Thursday, I don't know.

Q. It's a long season. At year's end, what do you want to accomplish this year?

JAMES BLAKE: Same. I'm going to sound like a broken record. Same thing. Just keep getting better. I want to ‑‑ at the end of this year, I want to say that I did my best. I worked as hard as I could, have no regrets. I did the things right that I want to do in the schedule, I did the things right I wanted to do on the court, I did the things I wanted to do off the court. If I do that, the results, whether they come or whether they don't, I got to be happy with it because those are things out of my control. As long as I've done my best, I'm happy at the end of the year. If that end of the year comes in Shanghai, great. If that end of the year comes in Argentina or Australia at Davis Cup, you know, that would be a great feeling. If it comes in Paris, you know, so be it.

I just want to keep doing everything I've done so far to this point. I don't feel like I've had any regrets. I've played well when I needed to. I've played bad sometimes when I needed to play well. I've been prepared for every situation, I feel like.

Q. Back to Nadal. You said that he stands apart. What are the one or two things you think make him stand apart?

JAMES BLAKE: Well, on clay I think the biggest things are his movement. He does not give up on points either. Those two things are just incredible on clay 'cause, I mean, it doesn't matter how many times you think you've put the ball away, it seems like he gets it back one more time. His defense is incredible. He can hit out of the corners better than anyone I've ever seen, where you got him pushed back, he's so strong that, I mean, that backhand on the run where he can rip it cross‑court is incredible. If you stretch him out to his forehand, he can still do just about anything with it. He's so strong. That's something you need to do. You got to be playing defense a lot on clay. Then he's also ‑‑ I mean, he uses that strong for the offensive, too. When he does get back into the point, he can hurt you. You feel like you can't hurt him, then you feel like he can hurt you. That's what he's been doing to everyone, it seems like. It's pretty effective, obviously.

Q. You beat him at the US Open and Indian Wells. Do guys come up to you and say, How do you play Nadal? If they do, what do you say?

JAMES BLAKE: They do, then they get frustrated when I say, I don't know (smiling). I played two great matches against him. I think for me, it just happens to match up well, I guess, and also obviously those were both on American hard courts where I tend to do my best. I feel like I need to attack him. He does play such great defense. But you can't get frustrated by that. You have to expect to lose a few of those points that you thought you won and not hang your head. I think too many guys have that happen to them once, twice, maybe three times, then start going for too much and panicking, kind of overplaying the shot. Then you start missing a little bit, a little the bit more, he's getting more fired up, more exuberant. Before you know it, you're shaking his hand. I try not to let that happen. If that happens to me a few times, that's all right, make him come up with it. All I try to do is make him play a great match to beat me. If I feel like I won the point two or three times, then he ends up winning it, tip your hat and say too good. If you do that over and over and over again, then what can I do? I played my best and I lost.

But I've been able to do that. If you keep doing that, keep doing that, I feel like I'm making him hit the more difficult shot, where he has to pass me or he has to come up with three defensive lobs or three shots to get back into the point and I'm hitting my forehand.

Other than that, I don't know. Like I said, I've just played some pretty good tennis where I've converted on breakpoints very well, I've volleyed very well against him. A couple times I've guessed right. Just things have gone my way against him. Hopefully it will continue, too, if I play him again. But I know it will be a totally different story if I play him on the red clay here.

Q. Your forehand is your money shot. As your backhand has improved, do you find yourself hitting fewer inside‑out forehands? If so, has that tactically been better for you?

JAMES BLAKE: If I find myself hitting fewer inside‑out forehands, then I know I need to move my feet better because I still want to be hitting that shot. I still want to hit my forehand to control points with that. It could be a problem if I end up just getting too complacent with my backhand because I feel like it has gotten better. I don't make as many errors on it at all. I can hurt people a little bit with it. I still feel like if I'm in that corner hitting forehands, guys don't know where I'm going, guys are going to be pushed back, guys are going to be on the defense if I'm doing that. That's the way I want to play points.

I still try to get the forehand.

Q. You did have a crucial break in the second set with a couple of backhands. You got a little stoked, didn't you?

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it's a great feeling. I'd say the better part of my life, my backhand has been awful. Now to have a backhand that I feel like I have confidence in, I can hit it, I can hit it down the line, I can hit it cross‑court, just feel comfortable, so I don't feel like guys can just easily attack it and I have to guard against it so much. It's a great feeling.

Yeah, I do get pretty excited when I hit a good backhand. It's still fun for me. I'm still like a little kid with a new toy.

Q. From The Open till the end of last year, you and Robby seemed to be on a similar upwards trajectory. You've taken a pretty divergent path this year. What in your opinion has gone wrong with Robby this year, his game?

JAMES BLAKE: It's another testament to how good the guys are and also how kind of dangerous that ledge is. It's so close, you're playing so well, you're winning a lot of matches. I don't think people realize how many matches, when I won, I could have lost. I mean, I could have lost to Rusedski last year at the Open. I could have lost to Robredo last year at the Open. I could have lost to López at Pilot Pen. I'm sure Robby had five or six matches like that through his run. If a couple of them start going against you, that gets in your head, you lose confidence. Guys feel like they can beat you. Guys are playing better then. Your ranking is higher, you but don't really feel like you're playing any better. Guys see that and they pounce on that. Guys are just playing great right now against Robby. I feel like he's gotten his confidence back now though. Unfortunately, obviously clay isn't his best surface. It's at a time when he might not be having a lot of success anyway.

I feel like right now, he's playing well. And going onto the grass where he's more comfortable, I think he's going to get that confidence back and into the hard courts. I have a feeling, I'm just guessing, but it's going to be a lot like last summer where he's playing great on the hard courts. One of the best players in the US Open race. Look for him to be in the top three or four.

Q. Were you able to counsel him at all if in your first trip to the top 20, you fell back? Have you talked about that?

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, it's tough, you know, being a fellow player and all. You don't want to sound preachy. Todd Martin did enough of that when he was playing. I don't want to do that.

But if it ever comes up, if he ever is talking a little about it, I'll kind of throw in my two cents, see if I can help. But I think it's kind of better just, if I can, lead by example, just the way Andy has done. Andy has helped us all out dealing with pressure, dealing with media stuff, dealing with all the extra ways he gets pulled, handling the pressure of kind of being the American hope. He's shown us how to do that in such a classy way that we all learn from that. I hope to, you know, just kind of try to follow in his footsteps and try to do the same for Robby.

Q. When you all get together, especially prior to Roland Garros, do you ever say, We're sick and tired of hearing how the American men can't win on clay, this year we'll put up results?

JAMES BLAKE: I mean, we joked about that before Dusseldorf. It didn't turn out so well (smiling).

Hopefully we can prove ourselves here. Brad Gilbert, I already heard a prediction, there will be an American in the second week. We can't let him be wrong 'cause, I mean, that would be the first time ever, right (smiling)?

We'll do our best to make him look as intelligent as he is. We're definitely getting tired of it. But what can we do? We haven't put up any results. It's not like we can point to anything and say, Look, we have done this. Last American in the second week was Mike Russell. We need to remedy that situation this year.