The 35-year-old Tommy Haas may be the oldest man in the top 100.
He may the oldest for almost a decade to finish inside the top 20—the last man being Andre Agassi.
Haas may be second on the all-time list of matches played on the tour during his 18 years as a pro—857 of them: The only man with more being his good friend Roger Federer.
He may have survived more injuries and surgeries than the rest of the top 10 put together—two broken ankles, a bulging disc in his back, an accident that almost claimed the lives of his parents, then major shoulder surgery, wrist injury, hip surgery and, a month later, elbow surgery—but the elegant German with the feisty on-court persona, beautiful single-handed backhand and cheekbones to die for has continued to defy the odds.
Take 2012. Haas won the ATP Comeback Player of the Year award for a second time, becoming only the fourth player to reach the quarter-finals at every Masters 1000 event.
Take last week. The former world No2—a ranking reached 12 years ago— reached a milestone 550 wins to reach the final of Zagreb, an achievement all the more impressive for coming after retirement in his first match at the Australian Open.
Yes, he was back from injury again, and since he had opted to stay in Germany after his medial treatment to play Davis Cup—Germany beat Spain to advance to the quarter-finals—he took the rare step of taking in the indoor tour before heading back to his usual base in the USA.
“Knowing that this year I was going to dedicate myself to Davis Cup, once I was over here, playing Zagreb and Rotterdam made sense… And who knows what’s going to happen next year. Thought I’d play some tournaments maybe I haven’t been to before.”
It was Haas’s first reference to the passing of time as he faced the media in Rotterdam. So it was also time to ask about his recent surprise announcement of a new coach. For in the aftermath of Australia, the German posted on his Facebook page that he would begin working with fellow German Alexander Waske. Not only that, they had together set one ambitious goal among their many for 2014. Having come within touching distance of the ATP World Tour Finals 12 years ago, and again falling just short last year, Haas decided it was worth one more try.
But what could a man of Haas’s years, experience and considerable success learn from a new coach?
“Hiring [Waske] was a long process. I knew at the end of last year that I was looking for a new coach. He has a lot of things that I look for in a coach at this moment in my career. He’s very confident, he’s a positive guy, he enjoys playing still himself and likes to win, and when you’re at the stage I’m at, playing for a long time and a lot of matches, one thing that’s very important is to have that guy who will give you the extra push.
“It’s very easy to maybe say ‘I’m tired today’, or ‘Let’s take two weeks off’, and ‘It’s OK not to do this and that in the gym’, but he’s there telling me if you’re not going to do the work, you’re not going to have any success. And that’s true.
“He obviously knew I had a chance last year, so he said ‘Let’s set ourselves a big goal’… but I hope we stop talking about it being my main goal to get to London. I mean, I have many other small goals—Slams, Masters, I just want to play good tennis.”
In his debut Rotterdam match, as it happens, he did play good tennis, and he had to against the 30-year-old Fernando Verdasco.
The two men had not played one another in more than four years, and that was a tough five-setter at the US Open. This, too, would go the distance, as the Spaniard’s pounding cross-court left-handed forehand tested the Haas right-handed backhand to the limit.
The contrasting styles and physiques made for exciting and attractive tennis. Both wear their hearts on their sleeves and there was plenty of opportunity for Haas to berate himself and for Verdasco to shout at his long-suffering box.
Haas gave up a 3-0 lead in the first set and then a 3-1 lead in the tie-break to lose the opening set, seven points to four.
The second set followed a near identical pattern, with Haas breaking only to have Verdasco break straight back. Haas, though, looked to have control with another break and a 5-3 lead, but Verdasco burst alive again to break and it went to a second tie-break. This time, Haas allowed his opponent just one point, and levelled, 7-1.
Verdasco broke in the first game of the third, playing some crisp, aggressive tennis, but gave up his 2-0 lead despite fighting off three break points. It looked as though a third tie-break was in the offing but a tense Verdasco made three straight errors to give up his serve and the match, 7-5, after two and a half hours.
So the evergreen Haas will now play one of the youngest players in the top 20, 23-year-old Jerzy Janowicz. And the challenges do not get any easier.
Lined up in the quarters is likely to be the formidable Tomas Berdych, who will next play Nicolas Mahut. And the semis could bring the top seed, Juan Martin del Potro.
One senses that the scale of the task ahead is of little importance to Haas, however. He has one very good reason to fight his way through this season for whatever success he can find.
“After hip surgery in 2010, when I was 31, I was at a low point. I was playing some good tennis the year before [he won Halle and reached the semis of Wimbledon], but I knew something was not right with my leg.
“At that point, I was pretty sure that could be it for me, but I knew I was going to become a father and I thought, maybe my kids can watch me play. And that’s my goal—and this year it’s going to happen.”
Should Haas make the World Tour Finals, it would be a memorable way to celebrate young Valentina’s fifth birthday.