Solana Beach resident once ranked No. 4 in the world teams with local teen Hudson Rivera for SoCal Pro Series
When the limelight fades and cheers give way to unsettling silence, many elite professional athletes struggle to walk away. Loosening the vice grip on something so engrained, so second nature, can spin things out of control.Blake, a onetime tennis supernova who reached No. 4 in the world, played poker and golf with Michael Jordan. He sipped on iced tea at the home of late President George H.W. Bush and visited Barack Obama in the White House.
“I think I was really lucky, because a lot of people struggle with the mental part ,” Blake said. “When you’re competitive that long and given your heart and soul to one sport, you’re so isolated. You care so much about your ranking, your health, your travel, it seems like that’s the world until you get out of it and realize there’s a much bigger world outside of tennis.
“Life goes on without you, so you better make the most of it and appreciate it,” Blake said. “I’m not going to cry over the ‘why me’ and why couldn’t I play a little longer, why couldn’t I win more matches. Because I wasn’t saying why me when I was winning all those matches.
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