Q. You served great today with the exception of that one game. We sort of expect that from you. What was really great today was your service return. Tactically speaking, what did you want to do with your service return today?

JAMES BLAKE: Well, he's got a huge serve. And I kind of ‑‑ I was a little surprised with how well I was returning it. But my goal was to really kind of get up after it. I didn't want to let it kind of eat me up, especially on the clay, as much as he kicks it. If I'm moving back or just trying to be tentative with it, I'm going to be in big trouble. I had to kind of take the initiative and go after it and step in and take it early.

You know, luckily that's what I usually do on hard courts, that's what I'm pretty comfortable doing, so it was working well. But it was kind of this time forced on me by how big his serve is. You know, if he could hit the huge one right at me and catch me leaning, then too good. But I wanted to make him hit his less comfortable serve because that kick serve is huge and that's I think his favorite serve. I wanted to try to take that away from him.

Q. Do you think in any sense you broke his serve down a bit with your returning today?

JAMES BLAKE: I felt pretty ‑‑ I started feeling much more comfortable towards the end of the match where, uhm, earlier in the match I couldn't read it as well, I couldn't ‑‑ I felt like I was playing defense, and I was just kind of blocking balls back.

I still did that at the end. When he hit his spot on a good first serve, I still had to just block it back. But when he gave me a chance and just missed his spot a little, I definitely felt like I was controlling it much better and I was going after it and felt confident doing that, whether it's breakpoint or 30‑All or 15‑All. I definitely felt much more comfortable going after it.

Q. You're holding down the fort here for the American guys. Can you talk about that role, the responsibility, and your comfort on these courts?

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah, I mean, I don't want to ‑‑ I don't really think about it on the court, that I'm the only American left or anything like that. But I have to prove Brad Gilbert right. He said there's going to be an American in the second week. I got to make sure he's not wrong for the first time ever. I'm doing my best.

It's an interesting role 'cause, you know, Andy has played that role for so long, for the last few years. We've had Andre kind of holding down the fort, as well.

But as long as we got one, that's a good sign. And also I think we're all improving on clay. Andy had an ankle injury. That's unfortunate. But I think he's getting better on clay. I definitely feel so much more comfortable on this surface now. It's a good feeling to know that I can ‑‑ that now I'm not going into the clay court part of the year with just kind of dread on my mind and, you know, it's going to be long, it's going to be painful, it's going to be frustrating.

Now I'm actually excited already for next year because I feel like I'm improving so much on this clay at such a great rate, it's kind of like when I was just getting into college and playing a lot more and improving, it was so much fun to play and so much fun to improve. It's kind of the same feeling right now on clay because I feel like I'm getting that much better each time I step on the court.

Even this match, if I had lost this match, it was going to be the same feeling, that this match was to get me better for the next year or for whenever I play on clay again. Nicolas is one of the best clay‑courters in the world. I think going into this tournament, Brad and some of the other guys said he was one of the favorites outside of Roger and Nadal, as much as anyone can be a favorite outside of them, but one of the kind of dark horses that everyone was talking about could win the tournament. So it's a great feeling to come up against someone like that and know that you can play with one of the best in the world on this surface, someone that's as comfortable as he is on this. Today it ended up he was the one that fell down once or twice I think, and I felt like I was moving pretty well on it.

Q. Was there something in particular that clicked for you on the clay, why you say you now feel that rising comfort level?

JAMES BLAKE: Well, I mean, it's a few things. I can't say there's one thing that just, you know, one day it turned around. It was a matter of feeling more comfortable mentally, where I don't get down on myself. And clay, you know, it's a real tribute to what Rafael Nadal has done, to his mental outlook, because you can get down, you can feel like you're putting balls away, they get them back, you can feel like you're ahead, and it turns around so quickly. There's just so much in it mentally to stay with it, to kind of ride out the ups and downs and not get too high or too low and just keep playing the right way and being patient.

That's something I'm better at. Maybe that's just age. Maybe that's the fact that I'm a little older and I hope wiser. But, otherwise, kind of the time I had off when I was working on my defense, I was able to just kind of scrap and get balls back and feel more comfortable on defense and then turning it around into offense, that's very important on this stuff. You see so many guys, I see Nadal being so good at that, Grosjean being so good at that, even Almagro today where you're stretched into a corner and you keep the point going, you don't let the guy off the hook and just kind of go for a winner there. You get it back and make him hit another winner. If they do, too good. It ends up, you know, winning you so many points just getting that one more ball in play and making them think about it every time, and then they start going for too much, it can be effective.

So I definitely feel like it's a few things that have really helped my game.

Q. How much did it help you to have gotten a one‑set look at him last night, then come back today with different weather conditions?

JAMES BLAKE: It would have helped a little more if I had won that set. It was good because the conditions last night were pretty heavy. The court was still a little wet. It was colder. It was actually still drizzling a little bit. That's not the ideal conditions for me against him.

But I still felt like even if we had continued last night, I felt pretty good about my chances. I mean, I missed a volley on his set point. Could have been right back in it. I felt like the tiebreaker he played pretty well and I missed a couple balls. I had three breakpoints. I don't think he had any. I felt good about the first set going to sleep last night.

But I knew in any conditions, I felt okay on it. The conditions today were a little better for me, so that was good. But, uhm, also I hadn't seen him play a ton, so it was good to get that and know that he's, you know, just because he's one of the best clay‑courters in the world doesn't mean he's unbeatable. Knowing that from last night helped me today. And I came out just with the same kind of confidence I would have had winning or losing that first set or against anyone that I felt like I could have a good chance to win my match. I just wanted to play my best and see where we were at the end.

Q. Before the match, Almagro was out there about 10 minutes before you. Were you detained somewhere, somehow?

JAMES BLAKE: Today?

Q. Was there a communication lapse with the tour or something?

JAMES BLAKE: No. When they called me, I ‑‑ I was in the training room and I just went and taped my finger and got my bags and went out there. I think he's in the Suzanne Lenglen locker room. Actually, that's further away. I don't know how. Maybe they called it earlier there than they did there. I didn't know that. If I had known that, I would have apologized.

I mean, yesterday ‑‑ we're in two different locker rooms, so yesterday I was out there early, and he was five minutes later. And today I guess the opposite happened. But it was not done at all on purpose. I didn't even know that.

Q. The win over Moya was an excellent victory. Today mixing the dropshots, lobs, could this have been your most complete performance on clay, considering the opponent?

JAMES BLAKE: It's tough to rate this one or Moya. Almagro by the end of his career I think will have a ton of accomplishments on clay. But Moya, he's got a pretty impressive resume on this stuff. I think he's won Rome, he's won here, he's been No. 1 in the world, based mainly on clay court results.

I've got to say my win over Moya. I've lost some real close ones to him. I know how great a player he is. Also when I was starting on tour, he was one of the guys that I looked up to as a great player, someone who played a little similar to me, stepping around, ripping forehands, also just one of the classiest guys.

Kind of beating someone that you really look up to on their favorite surface is something that's always memorable, especially the way I did it, where it was so close, really came down to me having to play a great last game. I think emotionally that one was huge for me.

This one obviously is still big.

Q. Out of total curiosity, why the sweat band on the left arm but not the right arm?

JAMES BLAKE: I have one bracelet that doesn't ever go anywhere. That stays on me always. It's a little loose, though. If I were to wear it without the wristband, it would kind of move around a little bit. That's why I always have it on the left. It was a present from my parents.

Q. When we were talking big picture the other day with Andy about the state of American tennis on the clay, he went to poker talk. He said we're playing a 7‑2 offsuit against pocket aces right now. Give me some poker talk. We don't want to fold 'em, I know that.

JAMES BLAKE: They'd be dominated. But any two can win, as they say. Even a 7‑2 off suit, as frustrating as it is, it can beat pocket aces. For playing that, the poker players, the ones that don't play as much always complain, Oh, four‑to‑one favorite. Four‑to‑one favorite, that means one out of five times you're going to lose. You got to be able to deal with that. Even if the Spaniards are four‑to‑one favorites against us, whoever we're coming up stop against who is a four‑to‑one favorite, that means one out of those five times we're going to win. I'd like to kind of even out those odds a little more. I'm trying. That's what we hit the practice court for, to try to make our cards a little better, I guess. I'm trying to do that.

Q. Are you all in for that Roland Garros?

JAMES BLAKE: For that Roland Garros, I'm ‑‑ I'm doing the best I can right now, but I don't feel like I've hit my potential on clay quite yet. I feel like I can get better. That's part of this Roland Garros, is continuing to improve, see how far it goes. Like I said, it's going to be fun to hopefully keep improving and getting better on clay. I never know when I'm going to hit that plateau, when I'm going to stop getting better. I really still feel like I'm still getting better.

It's exciting at 26 years old to still keep getting better. I don't think I'm quite done yet. I'm not quite all in.

Q. Can you talk about facing Gaël?

JAMES BLAKE: Gaël, he's a great player. I never played him. But he's got a ton of talent. He's shown a lot of kind of inspirational tennis in the last two matches, both five sets, kind of dug deep both times. He's pretty emotional out there. He's got the crowd behind him, which is going to be interesting, being kind of the, I don't know, I'm not going to get booed or anything, they've been partisan but fair and fun‑loving. It will be similar to when I played Grosjean here a few years ago. But Gaël I think is even more emotional.

It's going to be interesting. He'll get the crowd into it. I'll try to do my best to take the crowd out of it. Think about it like a Davis Cup match, go in there, we're playing an away Davis Cup match. Hopefully I can get a win.

He's got a ton of talent. He moves better than anyone. I think he might be the fastest guy on tour. The way he moves is incredible. He gets to a ton of balls and makes you win the point two, three, four times. You know, I have to do the same thing I did today, not get frustrated if he gets to a few and I can't put it away, and I lose that point, go on to the next one. Try to make him do it over and over and over again. See where we are at the end again.

Q. Effectively, that it is a straight‑sets win today, discounting what happened yesterday. You're looking dangerous now on the European clay. Could it be you're the next American to win a European clay court title?

JAMES BLAKE: I don't know. There's a couple guys that are pretty talented in Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. They're pretty big opposition. To consider anyone really a threat to win outside of them has got to be considered a longshot.

It's tough to say, but I feel like, yeah, I could be one of the dark horses which are right now, with the way those two are playing, very dark horses.

We'll see. But, I mean, like I said before, Almagro is one of the best clay‑courters in the world. It's a great feeling to beat one of those guys and see how well I'm playing. Like you said, it was basically a straight‑sets victory today. That's a great feeling to play that well against a top player.

Q. Do you feel we have an error in judgment back in the States? We basically seem to ignore the clay. Eddie Dibbs, Harold Solomon, maybe Michael Chang. We seem to ignore that in the training of our youngsters. What is your feeling on that?

JAMES BLAKE: Well, it's tough. I've never seen a clay court taken care of the way it is here. It seems very difficult. The people in Houston, at Westside, have tried to bring clay over there. But I think it's something different about the ground there where it's tough to make a clay court like it is over here.

The training I think suffers. We have a lot of green clay. I practice on green clay at Saddle Brook all the time. It's tricky for us to feel as comfortable on this stuff as other guys. Especially you see even the Russians, they end up training in Spain, or other guys from other places in Europe, they end up training in Spain where there are great clay courts.

We just didn't grow up on the stuff. But I don't feel like it's an error. We have had pretty good success at the US Open, the Australian Open. We'll maybe try to capitalize on our weapons, which is the hard courts, and the grass courts, and then see if we can find a way to keep improving. I mean, for me it's a challenge, it's something that's been great throughout my career, to find a way to get better on it. I hope, you know, the other guys are doing the same.

I think Andy's getting better. I think Robby's getting better. Hopefully the rest of us will improve. Mardy Fish won a title this year. He never had much success on clay before this. It's a good feeling to know we're all getting better.

Q. Are you supporting the US soccer team?

JAMES BLAKE: Of course. Got the jersey on.

Q. Will you go to Germany for the World Cup of soccer?

JAMES BLAKE: Am I supposed to go there? I hope I'll be here for a while longer. Then I got to go to Queen's right after this.

Q. Who is your favorite team for the World Cup?

JAMES BLAKE: The USA, for sure.

Q. USA?

JAMES BLAKE: Yeah. I'm from there. I'm cheering for them. I hear they're ranked five in the world, which is pretty impressive for a country that doesn't put as much into it as a lot of the European countries. Hopefully we're going to prove some people wrong on the soccer field. And hopefully I can help do it on the clay courts. Two things we're not really accustomed to: soccer and clay.