James Blake has been one of the better American tennis players over the course of his career, but the 33-year-old has decided to hang up his racket following the 2013 U.S. Open. Blake will face Croatian qualifier Ivo Karlovic in the first round of his final tournament as a professional.
2013 U.S. Open: James Blake will retire after tournament
The American announced Monday that he’ll retire following this year’s U.S. Open.
Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
Blake made the announcement at a news conference on Monday, telling the gathered reporters that he’s happy to end his career on his own terms:
“This is my last tournament,” he said. “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 is currently ranked as the world’s 100th best tennis player, and never reached higher than the fourth-place nod he received following the 2006 season. He won 10 tournaments over the course of his career, but never made it past the quarterfinals of a major -- and even that hasn’t happened in a singles tournament since the 2008 Australian Open.
He should be just fine now that he’s stepping away from tennis considering he attended Harvard before taking up professional tennis following his sophomore year, and made nearly $8 million over the course of his career.
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