Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017, and was ranked world No. 2 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in May 2002. Haas won 15 career titles in singles, including a Masters title at the 2001 Stuttgart Masters, and a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He reached the semifinals of the Australian Open three times, and in Wimbledon once. He reached the quarterfinal stage at each of the majors.
Early life Born in Hamburg, Germany to Brigitte and Peter Haas, Tommy started playing his own version of tennis when he was four years old, using a wooden plank to hit balls against the wall or into his father's hands. When his father observed his talents, he started bringing Haas to work, as he was a tennis coach.
At five, Haas won his first youth tournament, in Hamburg. At eight, he won his second, in Munich. Between 11 and 13, Haas twice won the Austrian Championship, the German Championship, and the European Championship.
Haas's talents were noted by tennis guru Nick Bollettieri. He was so impressed by the young German's talent that he offered Haas the chance to stay and train at his Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for free, and Haas began attending at age 11. At 13, speaking little English, Haas moved full-time to Florida to train at the academy.
His sister, Sabine, also played professional tennis.
Tennis career Juniors As a junior Haas reached as high as No. 11 in the junior world singles rankings in 1995 (and No. 5 in doubles).
1996–2000: World Team Cup champion, first title, Grand Slam Cup final, Olympic Silver In 1996, Haas became a professional tennis player. He played his first Grand Slam tournament at the US Open, losing in the first round to compatriot Michael Stich in four sets. He gained attention as a future star when he won his first ATP title in 1999, made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open, and was a finalist in the Grand Slam Cup. The following year, he won a silver medal at the Sydney Olympics defeating Wayne Ferreira, Andreas Vinciguerra, Àlex Corretja, Max Mirnyi and Roger Federer en route to the gold medal match where he lost to Yevgeny Kafelnikov. He also beat Andre Agassi at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships in the second round.
2001–2005: World No. 2, Masters champion, second World Team Cup victory and injuries
In 2001, he won four ATP titles, including his first Masters shield, finishing 2001 as world No. 8 and only missing out on playing in the season-ending Masters Cup because of Goran Ivanišević's Wimbledon victory, which meant Ivanišević took the eighth and final spot. In the 2002 Australian Open, he won in five sets against Todd Martin and Roger Federer, and in four against Marcelo Ríos to reach the semifinals. He led Marat Safin two sets to one but suffered from a stiff shoulder after a rain delay, and Safin won the match, taking the final two sets 6–0, 6–2. Haas was quickly rising to the top of the tennis ranks when his career was suddenly halted at No. 2 in the world by a severe accident that nearly claimed the lives of his parents, leaving his father in a coma. Haas spent much of 2002 taking care of his family. At the end of this lay-off, he injured his shoulder, requiring a major operation. He was plagued by further injuries and related complications afterwards and did not return to professional tennis fully until 2004. Before his parents' accident and his injuries, he had a winning record against several former and future No. 1 ranked players: 3–0 against Andy Roddick, 2–1 against Roger Federer, 2–1 against Marat Safin, and 2–0 against Jim Courier, as well as 5–5 against Pete Sampras. Haas won two more ATP titles in his return year of 2004, while trying to gain back his form.
2006: Three titles, second US Open quarterfinal
In 2006, Haas won three ATP tournaments and reached the quarterfinals at the US Open, where he was knocked out by Nikolay Davydenko after having been up two sets. Haas began having severe cramps in his legs in the third set. During the match he was visibly disturbed, repeatedly hitting his legs with his racquet, frustrated at the cramps.
At the end of the year, he had to win the Paris Masters to qualify for the Masters Cup, the ATP year-end final. He lost after a semifinal run to Dominik Hrbatý with health problems and did not play again for the rest of the year.
2007: Australian Open and Davis Cup semifinals, back to top 10 In 2007, Haas, with his long hair now cut short, had battled his way to his third Australian Open semifinal, which included matches against David Nalbandian and a five-set quarterfinal rematch against Nikolay Davydenko. He lost his semifinal match against first-time Grand Slam finalist Fernando González from Chile in straight sets. Despite this loss, Haas returned to the top 10 of the world rankings for the first time since 2002.
On 25 February, at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, Haas stopped Andy Roddick's quest for the final, winning in two sets. This was the first time Haas had won a title without facing a single break point in any of his matches, as well as the first time he had won titles in consecutive seasons. Haas also became only the second player to win three titles at Memphis, the other being Jimmy Connors, who won in 1979, 1983, and 1984.
Haas reached the quarterfinals of the Pacific Life Open, an ATP Masters Series tournament held in Indian Wells, California, where he lost to Andy Murray in a third-set tiebreaker. In the 2007 ATP Champion's Race, Haas, the 13th seed (10th-ranked), not known for being much of a grass court player, advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time, defeating Zack Fleishman, Tomáš Zíb, and No. 21 seed Dmitry Tursunov. His run came to an end after he suffered a torn abdominal muscle and had to withdraw a day before playing Roger Federer.
At the US Open, Haas equaled his best result in New York by reaching the quarterfinals with five-set wins over Sébastien Grosjean and James Blake. He beat Blake in a fifth-set tiebreak, saving match points. His run ended, however, with a three-set loss to Nikolay Davydenko.
2008–2009: Injuries, Wimbledon semifinal, return to top 20 In the first half of 2008, Haas was derailed by injuries, causing him to miss both the Australian Open and the French Open. This dropped him significantly in the rankings, as he was unable to back up his semifinal performance at the Australian Open the year before. He made it to the quarterfinals of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, defeating Andy Murray in three sets. He was then forced to withdraw from his quarterfinal match against Roger Federer due to injury.
He reached the third round at Wimbledon with a four-set win over Guillermo Cañas and a straight-set win over 23rd seed Tommy Robredo. He then fell to Andy Murray in four sets.
In the hard-court season, he got to the semifinals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C., but lost to Juan Martín del Potro. At the Rogers Cup in Toronto, he beat former world No. 1 Carlos Moyà, and then lost to Nikolay Davydenko in the second round. At the US Open, he beat 12th seed Richard Gasquet in five sets. He then fell to Gilles Müller of Luxembourg in five sets, despite cruising in the first two sets.
At the beginning of the new season, Haas pulled out of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open due to elbow problems. However, he appeared in the Kooyong Exhibition game, where he beat Mardy Fish.
At the 2009 Australian Open, Haas beat Eduardo Schwank in the first round and Flavio Cipolla in the second. In the third round, he fell to the tournament's first seed and eventual champion Rafael Nadal.
At the SAP Open in San Jose, California, he joined forces with Czech Radek Štěpánek to clinch his first doubles title, after losing in the singles quarterfinals to defending champion Andy Roddick.
Haas lost in the first round in both Memphis and Delray Beach. He did not succeed in defending his quarterfinal points at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, as he fell to Novak Djokovic in the third round, after defeating Óscar Hernández and Rainer Schüttler. He suffered another failure in the Miami Masters, losing to Mikhail Kukushkin.
In Houston, Texas, at the River Oaks Men's Clay Championship, Haas was defeated by Björn Phau in the quarterfinals, after he defeated defending champion Marcel Granollers in the second round.
As a qualifier in Madrid, he defeated Ernests Gulbis, before losing to Andy Roddick.
At the French Open, Haas matched his best result since 2002. He defeated Andrei Pavel in straight sets, and then won a five-setter against Leonardo Mayer. After defeating Jérémy Chardy in the third round, Haas was narrowly defeated by the former world No. 1 and eventual champion, Roger Federer, in the fourth round. At a crucial stage in the third set, Haas was only five points away from his biggest win on clay, but was unable to convert a break point that would have seen him serve for the match at 5–3. Federer hit a vital winner to save the break point, en route to a comeback victory.
At the Gerry Weber Open, Haas won his first title on grass in his 21st ATP World Tour final. In the process, he defeated fourth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round, Mischa Zverev in the quarterfinals, and Philipp Kohlschreiber in the semifinals. He defeated the tournament's second seed Novak Djokovic, in the final.
This victory made Haas one of a small group of players to have won ATP titles on all three major surfaces (grass, clay, and hard courts.) With Haas' success at this tournament and at the French Open, his ranking rose to no. 35.
At Wimbledon, Haas won a five-set match against Marin Čilić. Haas was up two sets to love and had match points in the fourth set, then had to save two match points serving at 5–6 before the match was suspended due to darkness after over four hours of play, at 6–6 in the fifth. The next day, Haas broke Cilic at 8–8 and eventually held on to win. Haas then comfortably defeated Igor Andreev to reach the quarterfinals. There, he defeated Novak Djokovic for the second time in three weeks to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon for the first time in his career, where he faced Roger Federer in a rematch of their encounter in Paris. Haas lost, ensuring Federer's historic seventh Wimbledon final. This success at Wimbledon made Haas rise to No. 19 in the rankings.
Haas continued his late career resurgence by making it to the semifinals at the LA Tennis Open, defeating Marat Safin in the quarterfinals, before losing to Sam Querrey. He made it to the third round at the US Open, losing narrowly to Fernando Verdasco, after being up a break in each set.
2010–2011: Continued injuries and absence Following his comeback, however, Haas suffered from another bout of injury. He made the third round of the 2010 Australian Open, defeating Simon Greul and Janko Tipsarević, but did not play after February 2010, spending time recovering from right hip and right shoulder surgeries. He missed the rest of the 2010 season and once more dropped out of the ATP rankings. He returned to action partnering Radek Štěpánek in doubles in Munich in May 2011, but then lost in the first round. His return match in singles came at the 2011 French Open, where he lost in round one. He also went down in the first round at Wimbledon, but reached the third round of the US Open, losing to Juan Mónaco in four sets. Other than Grand Slams, he played little tennis, competing in only ten other tournaments, mainly in July, August, and October.
2012: 13th title, second ATP Comeback Player of the Year award