Comeback Kid James Blake

James Blake Talks To Mike Wallace About Life's Challenges

(CBS) 
“James would come out and stand on the service line and I’d stand on the other service line and we’d hit balls back and forth,” recalls Betty. “He was a little under 3. And he would never miss. He would just keep going and going and going.”

But young James developed a terrible temper and he became notorious for smashing his racket after a bad shot.

He admits he could be difficult growing up. “I was, so when I was on the tennis court, you could really see it. Throwing rackets, whining, temper tantrums.”

James says he just may have had the wrong role model. “The No. 1 player in the world was probably John McEnroe at the time,” he says, laughing. “And I had a not-so-great example to look up to and use that as my excuse.

“I finally got a sportsmanship award when I was 17. And my mom couldn’t believe it. I had two trophies. And she said, ‘What’s the other one for? You know, I saw that you won,’ and I said, ‘That’s the sportsmanship award.’ And she thought I was joking. She said, ‘No really. What is it?’ And it’s a sportsmanship award. I won. And I was nice to everyone!”

It turns out James was growing into a gentleman and out of his clothes. He had been a puny kid, but he grew 9 inches in just one year, his junior year of high school.

“He sprung up 9 inches. And suddenly he wasn’t the same player,” says Barker. "I mean, his shots were much bigger. His serve was much bigger. The forehand was heavy and, before you know it, he started winning a lot of matches."

In fact, during his last two years of high school he never lost a match. He became the top player in America in the age 18-and-under category. At Harvard during his sophomore year, he became the No. 1 college player in the country. Then he took a leave from Harvard, turned pro, and made it to No. 22 in the national rankings before breaking his neck.

But even that couldn’t stop him for long. Just six weeks later, he began hitting tennis balls again.

Then his father’s death sent him back to the hospital with yet another health catastrophe. Doctors say losing his father was so tough for James that the stress triggered a severe viral infection, a debilitating case of shingles. It paralyzed half his face, reduced his hearing, blurred his sight, and more.

“It affected my balance, so I would get up and feel real dizzy like I was going to fall over. It affected my hearing. I lost 50 percent of my hearing in my left ear for a while, and my taste,” James says. “Everything tasted pretty gross to me at the time. And also, just my whole left side of my face was paralyzed. My eye wasn’t blinking so I had to put drops in it. It wasn’t really closing. I had only half of my face working.”

James remembers how a friend visited him in the hospital and managed to lighten the mood. “He cracked up laughing, and just started dying. He’s like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but you look ridiculous.’ And so it was perfect for me, because I just started laughing. I’m like, ‘You know what, I’m sure I do. I haven’t really looked in a mirror, but I know I look stupid.’ ”

The facial paralysis could have been permanent, but James finally recovered, got out of the hospital, and back on the court.

He grabbed the national spotlight at this year’s U.S. Open when he played a thrilling five-set match in the quarter finals against his idol, Andre Agassi.

James says he told Agassi afterwards, “ ‘I’ve never had so much fun losing a tennis match,’ just because of the whole atmosphere, the crowd, playing a legend. Someone I looked up to.”

And his mother told 60 Minutes that at the peak of the match, during the fifth set tiebreaker, James had a message for his dad. “He looked up and he said, ‘I love you dad,’ ” recalls Betty.

“I was thinking about how much he would’ve enjoyed being there. I think he would have been proud of the way I played,” James says.

Betty says when a key point goes against James in a match, he sometimes thinks of his father.

“If I think of my dad, I realize it’s not that big a deal. And it puts it into better perspective, thinking what he went through without complaining. I shouldn’t be complaining about one bad point, one shot and missed opportunity,” he says.