Blake told the New York Daily News he was standing outside the Grand Hyatt on 42nd Street, waiting for a car to take him to the U.S. Open to do television work when a man in shorts and a T-shirt ran at him, picked him up, and slammed him to the sidewalk.
He said the man, who was not wearing a badge, yelled at him to roll over and not say a word. The man was quickly was joined by four other men who were plainclothes police officers.
Blake said they told him he had been identified as a suspect in an identity-theft ring.
He told the officers to check his pockets for his wallet and U.S. Open credential to confirm his actual identity. He said they kept him in handcuffs for 15 minutes before realising their mistake and apologising.
Blake, whose father is black and mother is white, demurred when asked if he felt the incident was a case of racial profiling.
"I don't know if it's as simple as that," he said.
"To me it's as simple as unnecessary police force, no matter what my race is. In my mind there's probably a race factor involved, but no matter what there's no reason for anybody to do that to anybody.
"You'd think they could say, 'Hey, we want to talk to you. We are looking into something. I was just standing there. I wasn't running. It's not even close (to be okay). It's blatantly unnecessary. You would think at some point they would get the memo that this isn't okay, but it seems that there's no stopping it."
Blake, 35, played two years of tennis at Harvard before turning pro. He broke his neck when he slipped and fell into a net post during a match in Rome in 2004 but returned to the tour and reached a career-best ranking of No. 4 in the world in 2006. He retired after the 2013 U.S. Open.
He told the Daily News he initially didn't want to discuss the incident but ultimately did in order to shine a light on what he considers and important issue.
He said he hopes the NYPD will apologise and discipline the officers, "so they know it's not okay to go out there and do this again tomorrow."
UPDATE: On late Wednesday afternoon (US time), a spokesperson for the NYPD released a statement regarding the matter.
“Today James Blake was detained by police in midtown Manhattan in regards to an ongoing investigation into fraudulently purchased cell phones, after being misidentified by a cooperating witness. Once Blake was properly identified and found to have no connection to the investigation, he was released from police custody immediately. In regards to the alleged improper use of force, the Police Commissioner directed the internal affairs bureau to investigate.”
