Tommy Haas

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Template:Infobox Tennis playerTemplate:MedalTopTemplate:MedalSportTemplate:MedalSilverTemplate:MedalBottomThomas Mario Haas (born April 3, 1978 in Hamburg, Germany) is a German tennis player. He is 187 cm tall and plays right-handed. He is currently ranked #9 in the world , the highest-ranked German player. He reached a career-high ranking of World number two in May 2002.

His hobbies include movies, music, golf, the NBA, personal watercraft, table tennis, and fast cars.

Contents

Career

Haas started playing his own version of tennis when he was two-years-old, by using a wooden plank to hit balls against the wall or into his father's hands. When his father noticed his talents, he started bringing Haas to his job, which happened to be that of a tennis coach.

At five-years-old Haas won his first youth tournament, in Hamburg. At eight-years-old he would win his second, in Munich. Between eleven and thirteen, Haas would twice win the Austrian Championship, the German Championship, and the European Championship.

Haas's talents were noted by world renowned tennis guru Nick Bollettieri of the Bollettieri Academy in Florida. Nick was so impressed by the young German's talent that he offered Haas to stay and train at his academy for free. At 13, speaking little English, Haas moved to Florida to begin training at the academy.

In 1996, Haas became a professional tennis player. He gained attention as an upcoming tennis star when he won his first ATP title in 1999 and managed to make it to the semifinals of the Australian Open and was a finalst in the Grand Slam Cup. The following year he won a silver medal in the Sydney Olympics.

In 2001 he began to make even greater strides in his tennis career by winning four ATP titles, including his first ATP Master's title. Haas was quickly rising to the top of the tennis ranks when his career would be suddenly halted at #2 in the world, after a tragic and severe accident that nearly claimed the lives of Haas's parents, leaving his father in a coma. Haas would spend much of the 2002 year taking care of his family instead of playing tennis. At the end of the lay-off from tennis because of his parent's accident, he seriously injured his shoulder, requiring a major operation. He would be plagued by further injuries and related complications afterwards, and would not return to professional tennis fully until 2004. Before his parents' accident and various injuries and related complications, he had an impressive record against notable former, current, and future #1 ranked players: 3-0 against Andy Roddick, 5-5 against Pete Sampras, 2-1 against Roger Federer, 2-1 against Marat Safin, and 2-0 against Jim Courier. Haas would win two more ATP titles in his return year of 2004, while trying to gain back his form.

In 2006 he won three ATP Tournaments and would put in an impressive performance at at the U.S. Open, making it to the quarterfinals where he was knocked out by Nikolay Davydenko, despite having been up two sets. Haas began having severe cramps in his legs in the third set, and from then on his limited mobility on the court perhaps cost him the remaining three sets and a match in the semifinals. During the match he was visibly disturbed, repeatedly hitting his legs with his racquet, frustrated at the cramps.

At the end of the year he had to win the Paris Masters to qualify for ATP Championship. He lost after a semifinal run to Dominik Hrbaty with health problems and did not play again for the rest of the year.

In 2007, Haas, with his trademark long hair now cut short, had battled his way to his third Australian Open semifinal, which included intense matches against David Nalbandian and a five-set quarterfinal rematch against Nikolay Davydenko. He lost the semifinal against first time Grand Slam semifinalist Fernando Gonzalez from Chile in straight sets. Despite this loss Haas is returning into the Top10 of the world rankings for the first time since 2002.

Haas is seen as an intense and emotional player, sometimes having outbursts on the court by muttering at himself or at his coaches, or even off the court.

Masters Series singles finals

Wins (1)

Year Tournament Opponent in Final Score in Final
2001 Stuttgart Template:Flagicon Max Mirnyi 6-2, 6-2, 6-2

Runner-ups (1)

Year Tournament Opponent in Final Score in Final
2002 Rome Template:Flagicon Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-3, 6-0

Titles (10)

Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (1)
ATP Tour (9)

Singles (10)

No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. 15 February, 1999 Memphis, USA Hard Template:Flagicon Jim Courier 6-4 6-1
2. 1 January, 2001 Adelaide, Australia Hard Template:Flagicon Nicolás Massú 6-3 6-1
3. 20 August, 2001 Long Island, USA Hard Template:Flagicon Pete Sampras 6-3 3-6 6-2
4. 8 October, 2001 Vienna, Austria Hard (I) Template:Flagicon Guillermo Canas 6-2 7-6 6-4
5. 15 October, 2001 Stuttgart, Germany Hard (I) Template:Flagicon Max Mirnyi 6-2 6-2 6-2
6. 12 April, 2004 Houston, USA Clay Template:Flagicon Andy Roddick 6-3 6-4
7. 12 July, 2004 Los Angeles, USA Hard Template:Flagicon Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 6-4
8. 5 February, 2006 Delray Beach, USA Hard Template:Flagicon Xavier Malisse 6-3 3-6 7-6
9. 25 February, 2006 Memphis, USA Hard (I) Template:Flagicon Robin Soderling 6-3 6-2
10. 24 July, 2006 Los Angeles, USA Hard Template:Flagicon Dmitry Tursunov 4-6 7-5 6-3

Singles Finalist (9)

Doubles (0)

Performance Timeline

Tournament 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 Career
Australian Open SF 4r 2r - - SF 2r 2r SF 1r - - 0
French Open 3r 3r 1r - 4r 2r 3r 3r 1r - - 0
Wimbledon 3r 1r 2r - - 1r 3r 3r 3r 2r - 0
US Open QF 3r QF - 4r 4r 2r 4r 2r 3r 1r 0

External links

cs:Tommy Haasde:Thomas Haases:Tommy Haaseu:Tommy Haasfr:Tommy Haasnl:Tommy Haasja:トミー・ハースpl:Tommy Haassv:Thomas Haaszh:托米·哈斯it: Tommy Haas

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