...so why do you need 10? 
Read this in another thread. Amazing. Figured it's worth a thread of it's own.
http://www.bnpparibasopen.org/News/...pts/Extra-Column/James-Blake-First-Round.aspx
Read this in another thread. Amazing. Figured it's worth a thread of it's own.
http://www.bnpparibasopen.org/News/...pts/Extra-Column/James-Blake-First-Round.aspx
Q. Kind of a tough situation if I have it right with your racquets. What's up? What's happening?
JAMES BLAKE: Oh, man. I don't know. I don't even it would be too long of a story to get into. My racquets feel great right now. I don't have that many of them left, so I'm hoping that I can find a way to get more of them and find someone that can make a racquet exactly the way I like it.
It seems like I think it's just the modernization of the game that the racquets that are being made now don't feel the same as the ones when I started on tour. When I started, I think it was different materials. Using different materials, to me, feels a little more hollow, tinny. I guess the materials that are used are lighter and more powerful. For me it just doesn't it doesn't have the same feel. I never thought I was picky about racquets until I went through this situation where I'm trying to find one that's just like mine, and no one has been able to do it.
I'm really looking forward to putting this behind me and hopefully someone being able to make a racquet that I can use. We'll see if that happens soon.
Q. Do you treat your racquets sort of like a Stradivarius?
JAMES BLAKE: Yes, I do. They get treated very well nowadays. I don't want any of them breaking. You won't see me throwing racquets. I might hit a ball, I might yell and scream, but I'm not going to be throwing racquets. It will be a weird feeling, because I haven't done that for a long time, to be able to have a bad practice and actually smash a racquet, because I haven't done that in years.
Q. They just can't find the right materials?
JAMES BLAKE: Um, yeah, I think that's what it is. You know, I'm I just go by what it feels like, and, you know, all the racquet technicians and the people at Dunlop and any other companies, they tell me what their opinions are and everything. They've got this material in it and this stiffness and this swing weight and this and that, and, you know, all I go by is what it feels like.
I put in it in my hand, and if it doesn't feel good and I don't feel like I can compete with it, then that's all I go by. In my gut it feels like it's the material. They can make it the same weight, same balance, the same mold, the same everything. But if it doesn't feel the same, I only my only possibility in my head is that it's the material.
Q. How many do you have? How many racquets do you have left?
JAMES BLAKE: Not enough. I got three.
Q. Really?
JAMES BLAKE: Yep.
Q. You need to take a different racquet on the side, so if you want to smash it you can walk over...
JAMES BLAKE: I'd feel a little silly to do that. I'll leave that to the juniors. I used to do that when I was about 14, 15 years old.
Q. When you say it doesn't feel right, what is it that doesn't feel right?
JAMES BLAKE: I think the new material feels hollow, like tinny, and so it doesn't it's hard to describe. That's another problem is because I have a tough time articulating exactly what it is.
But the ball, it feels like it jumps off, and then it still it still doesn't fly out. Like some of the ones that have a lot of power, when I hit it solid, with my racquet I feel like I hit it solid and it's going to drop down in the court, with the new material I feel like it goes a little further out and goes flying out.
It's a material that to me it feels like it still jumps off. I don't have to create all my own pace, but it still dips down and has that spin that adds to it. I'm sure it's a tough combination for a company to make, and I'm finding that it's really, really tough for them to make.
Q. Where does the string fit into this?
JAMES BLAKE: The string, I've been using Luxilon since 2002 probably, and that's to me, it doesn't get any better than that.
Until someone puts a string in my hand that convinces me hands down it's better... Because I still remember the first day I used Luxilon. I put it on my racquet and I said, I'm switching. There was no doubt about it. It's so much better, and it feels it just feels so good.
Because you can swing hard and it and the ball, just it grabs. The string grabs it. And I've said it before. I think that's been the biggest change in the game in the last 15, 20 years. The reason for sort of the death of the serve and volleyers is you're absolutely able to rip those returns with this string and you're able to put it down at people's feet so much easier. You're able to control the ball with power better than you can with, in my opinion, any other string.
So until someone can show me something that feels better than that, I don't see myself changing string.
Q. Back to the racquet for one second. Barring a fit of destructive anger, do they have a life? I mean, do you find after a certain period of time they get a little dead or...
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, well, they do start deadening, which is another issue, because I've been playing with these for so long that they've changed from when I first used them. So that's another issue where they have to try to make them as if they've been broken in, and so that's tough.
But they eventually their life span probably isn't that much longer, because more than just deadening, they actually break without me doing anything outside of normal play.
Q. They crack?
JAMES BLAKE: The last one that I had that broke was last year in Paris, and that was a bad day. I was just warming up and hitting returns, and I took a swing at a forehand and it hit the top of the frame and the throat just cracked. I wasn't too happy about that. It was a bad day.
Q. You travel around the circuit with three racquets?
JAMES BLAKE: Yep.
Q. Did you play Memphis with them or a different frame?
JAMES BLAKE: I played Memphis. That was the first tournament this year I played with them.
Q. You played Australia with a different frame?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah.
Q. Was the brand W?
JAMES BLAKE: Ah, it was a different racquet.
Q. You're carrying more racquets than the three, right? You're carrying something you don't care for?
JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I'm carrying some backups just in case. But, you know, I plan on using those three.
