Tommy Haas climbing the ranking ladder once again: (Part 2) – Tennis Special
This is the second part of an article on the rise and fall of German tennis player, Tommy Haas. In a brief summary, Haas rose to the second spot in the world rankings in 2002 but he dropped out of the rankings in 2003 for staying
away from ATP World Tour due to his injury and parents’ accident.
Haas made a comeback to top 10 in 2007 but could not maintain a permanent place there. The German national was forced to take break from playing competitive tennis again from February 2010 to May 2011.
The Florida, USA resident made a comeback on the ATP World Tour by taking part in last year’s French Open as a wild card entrant but he failed to clear the first hurdle, losing to the then world number 123, Marsel Ilhan of Italy,
in four sets 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(1), 4-6.
Haas went down in two more successive matches at the Gerry Weber Open and Wimbledon Championships. He won his first comeback match by beating countryman, Michael Berrer, in the first round of the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis
Championships. The 6ft 2in tall gave his best performance of the season near its end, when he came through the qualifying draws and went on to reach the last-eight stage at the Erste Bank Open. At the end of the season, Haas had a win/loss record of 7-12.
The 34-year-old German has given a consistent performance in this season, producing many good results so far. The German started ranked outside the top 200 but he has jumped to the 35th spot. The right-hander has captured
one title in this season, having a match win/loss record of 19-9.
Haas produced his first notable result, when he advanced to the BMW Open semi-finals. He had stunned the then world number five, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Cyprus’ 39th ranked player, Marcos Baghdatis, in the second round
and quarter-finals respectively.
The German star then made it to the third round of the French Open, after qualifying for the main draw. Haas, who was ranked 50th at that time, made announcement of his arrival at among the top players again, as he upset
Swiss Maestro, Roger Federer, in the final to capture the Gerry Weber Open title.
Haas came close to winning his second title of the season but was beaten by Juan Monaco in the final of bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships.
After beating Gilles Simon in the second round of that event, Haas had said, “I don’t take anything for granted. I’m really a happy guy. I’m happy to have the chance to be playing at this level after a tough injury again. I didn’t
know if I was able to reach that level again and right now I’m playing at a pretty high level. And I think sometimes the matches that I have won show that at least, which is nice. It’s a nice momentum to have again, a nice feeling obviously.”
He added, “It doesn’t come for free. Nobody hands it to you. You have to work hard for it and I’ll take it and I’m just going to try to continue this good run as long as I can.”
This quick improvement in his form and rankings indicate that he would not stop shortly. Haas might fail to enter the top four in the world rankings but he can still make his position among the best 10 if he performs brilliantly
at the bigger tournaments.
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