Former World No. 2 Tommy Haas won his first ATP singles match of the year Monday night (and first since 2015) at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, defeating a two decades younger #NEXTGEN ATP prospect Reilly Opelka 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3.
The 39-year-old Haas had lost all three of his previous singles matches in 2017 with the last two being close three set defeats to Jiri Vesely and Nik Basilashvili in Key Biscayne and Delray Beach respectively. Haas looked very competitive and solid in Key Biscayne and Delray Beach and now he has finally gained match toughness confidence and rhythm after missing about a year following his ninth surgery.
“It’s nice to win these matches, especially against the young guys who are going to be around for a long time. The nerves when you’re trying to win a match are something you can’t practice. You can run all day on the treadmill, be in the gym a lot, but you can’t substitute that for match play,†said Haas. “Hopefully I can recover well and be ready for Wednesday.”
Next up for the 2004 Houston champion Haas is the top seed and last year’s finalist Jack Sock, who received a first-round bye following Davis Cup weekend in Brisbane where he lost in singles to Jordan Thompson and won in doubles with Steve Johnson. Haas and Sock have played twice before – splitting their two previous confrontations.
Haas has stated 2017 is definitely his final season on the ATP World Tour, however his competitive spirit is as driven as ever and knocking off Sock and proceeding deeply into the Houston draw is his absolute objective.
“I don’t know any other way, to be honest. If I’m not trying to win the match and play to the best of my ability, then I don’t see the point,” Haas told the assembled press. “I just want to be able to finish on my own terms and play the tournaments that I’ve enjoyed one more time.â€
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Scoop Malinowski · April 11, 2017 at 10:43 am
Very nice to see Haas finally get a solid singles win this year because I saw how close he was in Delray and Key Biscayne just falling short but now he has the feeling of winning back and hopefully his body will hold up and Haas will show and experience again the flashes of greatness he has shown for the last two decade in the ATP –
Hartt · April 11, 2017 at 11:27 am
! was so excited that Haas won. Amazing that he was playing a guy half his age. Someone posted a list of the players Tommy played against early in his career and of course all of them retired some time ago. Anyway, it is great he is able to play this season and retire on his own terms and not end his career because of injury.
Scoop Malinowski · April 11, 2017 at 11:37 am
Hartt; I saw good portions of Haas play in Delray and Key Biscayne and his level is right there with top 50 guys but he just kind of ran out of gas at the end of both of those three setters – He is right there and this win over Opelka could spark a decent win streak – But Sock will be a tough guy to beat –
Scoop Malinowski · April 11, 2017 at 11:38 am
Haas opponents earlier in his ATP career 1996: Pete Sampras, Mark Woodforde, Michael Stich
1997: Marcelo RÃos, Carlos Moya, Thomas Muster, Felix Mantilla, Magnus Gustafsson, Thomas Enqvist, Jeff Tarango, Petr Korda, Albert Costa, Karol Kucera, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Fabrice Santoro, Tim Henman
1998: André Agassi, Gustavo Kuerten, Greg Rusedski, Michael Chang, Marc Philippoussis, Alex Corretja, Marc Rosset, Magnus Larsson, Jim Courier, Wayne Ferreira, Marc-Kevin Goellner, Richard Karjcek, Jonas Bjorkman, Nicolas Kiefer, Sergi Bruguera
1999: Patrick Rafter, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, Cedric Pioline, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Sebastien Grosjean
Dan Markowitz · April 11, 2017 at 2:40 pm
Geez,that’s a weak draw in Houston. Look at Noah Rubin, here’s a guy who’s 21 and is currently ranked no. 181 and has earned a total of 295 k during his career. Now yes he possibly has a long career ahead of him, but he has to pull out of Houston with wrist problems and the future doesn’t look too rosy for the New Yorker.
Scoop Malinowski · April 11, 2017 at 2:53 pm
Houston draw is nice – F Lopez Sock Isner Chung Johnson Verdasco Donaldson Querrey Young Estrella Burgos Escobedo and Bryans in doubles – Solid draw – Greg Sharko has told me several times it’s a really nice event and the location is just a fantastic setting – Players love this event –
Hartt · April 11, 2017 at 3:15 pm
On the ATP site they said this is the oldest winner of an ATP match since Connors in Halle in 1995 when he was 42.
Scoop Malinowski · April 11, 2017 at 3:26 pm
It’s very rare that players over 39 actually compete in singles – Connors of course comes to mind at US Open and beyond – An over 40 Thomas muster had that comeback about five years ago but he failed to win any singles matches – Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain is 39 and still out there grinding and actually he played this week in Houston qualies but lost 1R to Rubin 67 57 – RRH is actually ranked 149 in the world right now while Haas is 826 –
Hartt · April 11, 2017 at 3:48 pm
One thing about having a low ranking is that 1 win can make a difference – Haas has jumped all the way to No. 654 in the live tennis rankings! 🙂
Chazz · April 11, 2017 at 7:37 pm
Does anyone know why Tennis channel isn’t televising Houston until Friday? They are exclusively showing the Grand Prix Hassan tournament until then. You would think with all the Americans in Houston and Hassan having a fairly mediocre field they would mostly show Houston.
Scoop Malinowski · April 11, 2017 at 8:05 pm
Good questions Chazz – would guess maybe they are showing early rounds on TC Plus in order to drive up sales for TC Plus?
Chazz · April 11, 2017 at 8:17 pm
Oh yeah, I forgot about TC Plus. That is probably what they are doing.
Bryan · April 15, 2017 at 1:28 pm
Haas has been one of my favs for many years so it was fun to see him finally bank a win. That said, his farewell tour is going to be a rough season.
The velocity of his serve and forehand are down 20% or more. I recall Scoop said a couple years ago he had ‘dead arm.’ That seems to be true even though he’s healthy enough to play.
Bryan · April 15, 2017 at 1:30 pm
“Does anyone know why Tennis channel isn’t televising Houston until Friday? They are exclusively showing the Grand Prix Hassan tournament until then. You would think with all the Americans in Houston and Hassan having a fairly mediocre field they would mostly show Houston.”
My exact thoughts. That other tournament is trash. Should’ve been showing Houston all week.
Scoop Malinowski · April 15, 2017 at 7:50 pm
Bryan: The word on Haas a few years ago was his shoulder was shot – Really badly shot – it ended up being one of his nine surgeries –
Thomas Tung · April 15, 2017 at 7:58 pm
Yeah, I remember Haas’ first shoulder surgery. After he got back on Tour, he was no longer the same Haas in terms of his serve and forehand, and was playing a much more “finesse-oriented” game to compensate. That injury really hurt his career.