James Blake on the Secret World of Players

James Blake, the popular American tennis player, says tennis players are stuck in a kind of perpetual childhood.

"The ATP tour is like a kind of traveling neverland, where no one forces you to grow up," he wrote in Breaking Back. "So a lot of guys are indistinguishable from overgrown adolescents -- when not hitting tennis ball, or the gym, we spend our time hanging out, playing poker, watching television, mastering video games, instant messaging each other, perfecting iPod playlists, and planning the occasional practical joke."

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