by James Blake with Andrew FriedmanI love James Blake for a million reasons. I love his intense, entertaining tennis--how he hits his shots with so much power with his fans, the J-Block, 110% behind him. I love his beautiful, kind face. I love that he was brilliant enough to go to Harvard. I could go on for quite awhile but I'll just say that most of all I love James for what he overcame in the year 2004.
In Breaking Back James brings us along as he fractures his neck on a net post, explaining how that wasn't even the worse thing he'd ever experienced. For James it was a mild discomfort. He had battled scoliosis as a child and had to wear a brace except for when he was playing tennis. Then at night he got to rest on a bed as solid as bricks. It's amazing that he could play a sport at all.
While James was recovering from his neck fracture the rock of his life, his father, passed on. And shortly after that James discovered that he had zoster, a disease brought on by stress that paralyzed the right side of his face and forced him to wonder if he would ever play tennis again.
The fact that James has come back from 2004 to be one of the top tennis contenders in the world is a testament of his strength of character. I love what he had to say about how he battled through 2004 with his unwavering and sometimes charmingly psychotic optimism. James Blake is someone we can all look at to find the best version of ourselves.
General consensus: The writing was a bit formal but the content was incredible.
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