James Blake
Profile:
Singles Ranking: 103Doubles Ranking: 510
Country: United States of America
Birth Date: 28 December 1979
Birth Place: Yonkers, New York, USA
Residence: Tampa, Florida, USA
Height: 1.85 metres (6 ft. 1 in.)
Weight: 83.2 kilos (183 lbs.)
Plays: Right Handed
Biography:James Blake was born on December 28, 1979, in Yonkers, New York, into a tennis family. His father, Thomas, and his mother, Betty, met on the public tennis courts of New York. Thomas Blake learned to play tennis during his tenure in the United States Air Force, while Betty Blake picked up the game as a grade school student in Banbury, England. The Blakes played tennis regularly at the 369th Armory in Harlem and they took their young children with them. By the age of five James began playing tennis with his older brother Thomas, Jr.
When Blake was six years old, his family moved to Fairfield, Connecticut. His father worked as a salesperson for 3M Worldwide, a technology company, while his mother worked as a secretary at the local tennis club. Both Thomas and James took lessons at the Trumbull Tennis Club in Connecticut. It was at this club that Blake met Brian Barker, who began coaching Blake at age 12.
Yet the Blakes ties to Harlem remained strong. They continued to play tennis in Harlem on a regular basis and volunteered at the Harlem Junior Tennis League, a program aimed at introducing tennis to inner-city children. As a result of their parents' involvement in the Harlem program, Blake and his brother participated in the League's tennis clinics. As a biracial child, Blake moved comfortably between the very different worlds of middle-class Fairfield and inner-city Harlem with tennis as a bridge between them. It was at one of the tennis clinics in Harlem that James first heard the famous African-American tennis player Arthur Ashe speak. Ashe was the first black man to reach the number one rankings in international tennis. He was a pioneer for African Americans in a sport that has been dominated by whites. Ashe's passionate speech and his reputation as both a great tennis player and a well-respected person inspired Blake to consider a career in tennis.
Pictures:
James Blake
James Blake
James Blake
James Blake
James Blake
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