| By Chris Oddo |
Photo Credit: Patrick Kovarik/AFP/GettyImages |
(May 29, 2012)—Tommy Haas has rarely taken the easy road over the course of his 13-year professional tennis career. When you look at him you’d think he has—he’s blessed with Hollywood looks and a smooth, classical game that is in harmony with those looks—but the truth is that Haas has had to demonstrate miraculous patience, determination and perseverance to be where he is today.
Two years after his latest major surgery, Haas is still grinding it out on tour, and unlike many younger and angrier veterans of the tour—guys who wear their angst on their sleeves like Andy Roddick, or guys who just plain get burnt out and retire like Ivan Ljubicic—the current world No. 112 in the world does it with a smile.
This week he’s in Paris as a qualifier, and even the fact that he was denied a wildcard and had to play three rounds of qualifying just to make the main draw doesn’t bother him. “I think my fans are probably thinking it’s ridiculous, but at the end of the day I did obviously ask for a wildcard into the French Open,” said Haas, “but I knew it was going to be tough to get one, there are a lot of good French players right between 100 and 200.”
Haas, who came within five points of upsetting Roger Federer (in straight sets) in the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2009, was forced out of action a few months later when his hip required surgery. But it wasn’t the first time Haas had dealt with an injury setback. He missed the entire 2003 season after having two surgeries on his shoulder, and saw limited action in 2008 after another surgery.
Still, it had to hurt, both literally and figuratively. Just when the former world No. 2 looked to be playing his best tennis in seven years (he reached the Wimbledon semis in 2009, and had climbed inside the top 20) he had to hit the eject button again.
But not too worry. There is no quit in Haas—at least not yet—and he’s got good reason for that. “My daughter is a year and a half,” Haas told reporters Tuesday after finishing off Filippo Volandri in four sets. “If I can play another year, year and a half, maybe she gets to see me play at a real high level, which is another goal of mine.”
Even though Haas is the second-oldest player left in the draw (Frenchman Arnaud Clement is the oldest), the Hamburg, Germany native truly believes that all his time off due to injuries has left his body “fresher” than he would have been otherwise. “Maybe mentally I’m only 29, 30,” Haas said.
Haas’s dedication to fitness is one of the reasons he’s consistently able to work his way back into shape after injury setbacks. “It took a really long time to become confident again,” Haas told ATPworldtour.com of his road back from hip surgery in 2010. “I had to work on getting my strength back. Early on my lower back and my knee started compensating, because the body is all connected. It involved a lot of exercises, hard work and dedication to get back.”
Aware of the physicality of today’s game, Haas has committed himself to re-energizing his body, doing yoga, pilates and logging lots of hours in the gym, and with a winnable match against Sergiy Stakhovsky in round two in Paris, his 2012 French Open could be the springboard to a higher ranking just like it was in 2009.
For now though, he’s just happy to have made the main draw and given him a shot to play the game he loves on one of its grandest stages.
His first match was played over the course of two days, and he had to wait several hours to take the court to finish it when Jeremy Chardy blew a match point in the third set and ended up winning 11-9 in the fifth in the match the preceded his.
That’s where the 34-year-old’s experience on tour helped him out.
“I actually got ready for the match four of five times,” Haas said. “At 9-all in the fifth you start getting a little bit annoyed with the situation, but when you get through everything is fine.”