Tommy Haas

Olympic medal record
Men's Tennis

Tommy Haas
Country (sports)	Germany
Residence	Sarasota, Florida, USA
Height	6 ft 2 in (187 cm)
Turned pro	1996
Plays	Right; One-handed backhand
Prize money	$7,368,008
Singles
Career record	366-200
Career titles	10
Highest ranking	No. 2 (May 13, 2002)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	SF(1999, 2002)
French Open	4th (2002)
Wimbledon	3rd (1998-2000, 2006)
US Open	QF (2004, 2006)
Doubles
Career record	41-53
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 127 (February 18, 2002)
	Last updated on: August 12, 2006.

Thomas Mario Haas (born April 3, 1978 in Hamburg, Germany) is a German tennis player. He is 6'2" tall and plays right-handed. As of August 28, 2006, Haas is currently ranked #11 in the world, the highest ranked German player. He reached a career-high ranking of number two in the world in May of 2002. His hobbies include movies, music, golf, the NBA, personal watercraft, table tennis, and fast cars.

Career

Haas started playing his own version of tennis at the age of two and a half years old, by using a wooden plank to hit balls against the wall or into his father's hands. When his father Peter 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 the ages of 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 thirteen, speaking little English, Haas moved to Florida, and he bgan 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 semi-finals of the Australian Open. The following later he won a silver medal in the Sydney Olympics.

In 2001 he began to make even greater strides in his tennis career by winning 4 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 parent's accident and various injuries and 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. He would win two more ATP titles in his return year of 2004, while trying to gain back his form. In 2006 he would put in an impressive performanceat at the U.S. Open, making it to the quarter-finals where he was knocked out, 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 cost him the remaining three sets and his place in the semi-finals.

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. After losing in a five-set epic in the fourth round at the 2006 Australian Open to Roger Federer, Haas commented in a post-match interview, "Courier has his tongue up [Federer's] ass" [1] in reference to Jim Courier's lavish praise of Federer.

Masters Series singles finals

Wins (1)

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

Runner-ups (1)

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

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	Jim Courier	6-4 6-1
2.	1 January, 2001	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Nicolás Massú	6-3 6-1
3.	20 August, 2001	Long Island, USA	Hard	Pete Sampras	6-3 3-6 6-2
4.	8 October, 2001	Vienna, Austria	Hard (I)	Guillermo Canas	6-2 7-6 6-4
5.	15 October, 2001	Stuttgart, Germany	Hard (I)	Max Mirnyi	6-2 6-2 6-2
6.	12 April, 2004	Houston, USA	Clay	Andy Roddick	6-3 6-4
7.	12 July, 2004	Los Angeles, USA	Hard	Nicolas Kiefer	7-6 6-4
8.	5 February, 2006	Delray Beach, USA	Hard	Xavier Malisse	6-3 3-6 7-6
9.	25 February, 2006	Memphis, USA	Hard (I)	Robin Soderling	6-3 6-2
10.	24 July, 2006	Los Angeles, USA	Hard	Dmitry Tursunov	4-6 7-5 6-3