Scholarship offers from the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia—two of the nation’s premier tennis programs, were on the table. His older brother, who would reach the NCAA Round of 16 later that year, was Fish’s right hand man in pitching Harvard to the younger Blake.

“I [eventually] talked him into it,” Thomas said. “He was thinking about possibly playing for other schools and whether he would be playing as much at Harvard as UNC or UVA. I just gave him my view on what it had been for me there and said I thought he would be able to hack [it].”

In high school, Blake had watched Thomas play at Harvard and had spent time with the team for the last three years. After talking with Fish and his older brother, Blake followed in Thomas’s footsteps, making the jump to Cambridge, and with it, collegiate tennis.

A PART OF A TEAM

Right when Blake got to Harvard, Fish knew that he had a different kind of player on hand.

“Have you ever seen the Batmobile, when [Batman] pushes the button and all of a sudden there is something that nobody expected?” Fish said. “That was James. He had several gears that put him at the head of the pack.... Something would happen, then he would fire out and be a different player. He had more levels to go to than a lot of people do.”

Under Fish’s tutelage, Blake found another gear. The player Fish said had “opened a lot of eyes” before arriving at Cambridge was not physically ready for the ATP Tour as an 18-year old. Collegiate tennis helped him mature mentally and physically in a way he could not as an 18-year-old pro.

“You become a part of a team that is more important than individual success,” Blake said. “Starting as a freshman and paying your dues is a great learning tool. I probably played more matches in a school year than I did in almost any full year on tour. Nothing else builds confidence and makes you feel comfortable on the court like winning.”

While Blake stands now at 6’1”, early on his short stature earned him the nickname “Squirt Gun” from members of the Harvard tennis team.

“He used to come to [Harvard] matches when he was in high school,” said Kunj Majmudar ’99, Blake’s doubles partner at Harvard. “My early memories of him were when he was a little kid, and he wasn’t that big.”

Playing Ivy League tennis allowed Blake’s body to develop physically. As he put on muscle, his forehand—which was clocked at 125 miles per hour in 2011—became a Tour-level weapon and the center of his game. The relatively relaxed environment of Cambridge allowed the 18-year old to refine his technique and find an identity in his game.

“I don’t know that his body would have held up if he had gone right back on tour like a lot of the other guys that went out of high school,” Thomas said. “It was a good intermediate step where the competition was better than the juniors but not as good as on Tour. It let him get stronger without being under a ton of pressure and not having to battle for a living.”

Blake’s route was unusual, but certainly not unique. Many of tennis’ big hitters, including top-20 players Kevin Anderson and John Isner, were All-American college players first and pros second. Isner, who trained with Blake in Tampa, Fl., said the pressure of collegiate tennis prepared him well for the Tour.

“You’re not playing for yourself—you’re playing for your teammates and you’re playing for your school,” Isner said. “Playing in a very big, very heated college tennis match is about as pressure-packed a situation as you can get.... I’ve been more nervous playing college tennis than I ever have been actually playing in the pros.”

Blake’s juniors experience may have prepared him somewhat for the level of competition, but not for the team atmosphere of college tennis.