00:00How would you characterize your career and also how the back impacted you physically, mentally, how you learned to persevere?
00:09I know you were the Comeback Player of the Year in 2005. Take us through all of it, James.
00:14I look back at my career as I kind of accomplished my goal because I had a very boring answer
00:19for anyone in the media when I was playing in my press conferences.
00:22What's your goal? What's your goal? Is it top 10? Is it top 5? Is it win a Grand Slam?
00:26And I always said my goal is when I put my rackets down that I want to be happy and
00:30know that I got the most out of my career and I did everything I could.
00:33And that's the way I feel. And that's why I sleep well at night is that I did everything I
00:37could.
00:37I didn't have a career like Andre. I didn't have the ability that's going to end with my career here
00:41in Newport in the Hall of Fame.
00:43But I did my absolute best. I got the most out of it. I made some mistakes, plenty.
00:47But I had trial and error. And when I made a mistake, I tried to fix it.
00:50And I tried to do my best in each situation.
00:52So, of course, I would have loved to have won more matches.
00:54But I did everything I could to win the matches that I did.
00:57And I'm very, very grateful for the career.
01:00And then, yeah, injuries played a role.
01:01My knee, my back, my neck, my shoulder.
01:05You know, you get banged up playing tennis.
01:07And I had a very awkward one and a weird one that you don't normally see where you break your
01:11neck playing tennis.
01:13And coming back from that, it definitely gave me a great perspective.
01:16I then look back at it and say, you know what, I'm lucky to have had that horrible experience that
01:23taught me a lot about life at a young age.
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