Blake To Retire In New York

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 27th August 2013

BB&T Atlanta Open men's tennis tournament in Atlanta, Georgia

Blake To Retire In New York

epa03803032 James Blake of the US reacts after losing a point to John Isner of the US during their quarter final match at the BB&T Atlanta Open men's tennis tournament at Atlantic Station in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 26 July 2013. Isner defeated Blake to advance to the semi final round and faces Lleyton Hewitt of Australia. EPA/ERIK S. LESSER |

After one of the most noble, eloquent and at times hugely unfortunate tennis careers, United States Davis Cup winner James Blake chose Day One of the US Open to announce his retirement at the age of 33.

Blake, ranked world no.4 back in late 2006 but now the world no.100 said: “I don’t want to be dragged out of this game. I don’t want someone telling me I need to leave. I want to leave on my own terms.”

He is set to play qualifier Ivo Karlovic in the first round and announced: “This is my last tournament. I have had 14 pretty darn good years on tour, loved every minute of it, and I definitely couldn’t have asked for a better career.

“I’m really, really excited I have gotten to do this on my terms. I had knee surgery a couple years ago, and if that had been the end it would have been a little more disappointing to me to end it without going out the way I am now where still just two weeks ago I beat a guy top 20 in the world.”

Blake leaves the sport with a career prize fund close to $8 million, a winning record of 366 victories compared to 255 defeats and ten ATP World Tour titles, stretching from winning the Washington DC event in 2002 to New Haven just before the US Open six year ago.

The former Harlem Junior Tennis Program and Harvard University student will probably be more remembered for the hardships he’s endured that his successes. He was diagnosed with curvature of the spine when he was a child and broke his neck in a freak accident in Rome in 2004 and then suffered a debilitating bout of zoster or shingles.

He said: “I think that time being part of the biggest tragedies of my life to this point also clued me in to how lucky I am right now to be doing this on my terms, because my career could have ended twice in 2004. I was millimeters from breaking my neck in the way that would have left me paralyzed for the rest of my life.

“When that happened and I was able to get back in a few months, I knew how lucky I was. Unfortunately, it was also the time my father passed away, and that had an effect on me physically with shingles.

“If I hadn’t gotten to the ER immediately for treatment they said my facial nerve could have died. If that’s the case, I never would have played.

“It easily could have ended right there and my life could have been drastically different. I know how lucky I am to be where I am and to be able to do it this way.”, the same year his father Thomas died of cancer.

Blake married his wife Emily late last year and they have a young daughter Riley Elizabeth.

In memory of his late father, he founded the Thomas Blake Sr. Memorial Research Fund to support cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and stages an annual charity event that has raised more than $3 million for cancer research.

Blake concluded: “I have no regrets. Some things are out of my control obviously. If I could do it all over again, if I had, you know, a genie in a bottle and could make one wish, I’d wish my dad was here to see the rest of my career,” he said.

“I really hope the mark is just that I did things the right way. I don’t kid myself, I know I have had a great career in my eyes, but it’s not one that’s going to go down in the history books. It’s not one that’s going to end in the Hall of Fame at Newport (Rhode Island), but it’s one that I’m proud of.”

Topics: 10sballs.com, Atp World Tour, Davis Cup, James Blake, Tennis, US Open