{"id":102725,"date":"2025-05-15T05:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T05:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/102725\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T05:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T05:44:09","slug":"he-is-the-former-world-number-two-whose-last-ever-win-on-the-atp-tour-came-against-roger-federer-on-grass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/102725\/","title":{"rendered":"He is the former world number two whose last ever win on the ATP Tour came against Roger Federer on grass\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Roger Federer was dominant on grass courts, winning 19 titles on the surface during his tennis career.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Throughout tennis history, few players have performed better on a single surface than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/roger-federer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Federer<\/a> on grass.<\/p>\n<p>The Swiss star won <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/wimbledon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wimbledon<\/a> eight times and went unbeaten at the event for five years between 2003-2007.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-88828159-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Paul Gilham\/Getty Images\" class=\"wp-image-84615\" \/>Photo by Paul Gilham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Beating him on grass was almost impossible at times, especially for players past their \u2018physical peak\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>However, in 2017, a 39-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/atp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ATP Tour<\/a> veteran on the verge of retirement pulled off one of the biggest upsets of his career to beat Federer in Stuttgart.<\/p>\n<p>Tommy Haas beat Roger Federer for his final-ever ATP Tour win in Stuttgart eight years ago<\/p>\n<p>Appearing on the Tennis Channel, Germany\u2019s Tommy Haas recalled what happened during his 17th career meeting with Federer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I was 2-6, 1-2 down in the second set, and we played about maybe 29, 30 minutes. I was just thinking in the changeover, God, I really hope I can stay out here for at least an hour, you know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnytime you lose a match and it says 58, 59 minutes, less than an hour, it was pretty embarrassing. So I told myself, try to stay out here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomehow, I won the second set in a tiebreak, and I was in the match, and I looked at the clock again during a changeover, it\u2019s been an hour and 25 minutes, I was like, third set, anything can happen now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did feel my lower back tightening up again, so I was sort of relaxed because I was so furious with myself or with my body that once again I\u2019m dealing with an injury while I\u2019m playing here against Roger [Federer], trying to win this match.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Haas somehow battled back to win in three sets, 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, and considered retiring there and then.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was so relaxed and so p\u2014- off inside, that I somehow found a way to win that match,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I\u2019m walking to the net, I\u2019m thinking to myself, you know what, my family\u2019s here, I was telling myself I should just take the microphone and say that\u2019s it for me, I\u2019m done.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know it\u2019s not going to get any better than this, but then of course, you\u2019re talking to yourself and you still wanted to play in Halle, I still wanted to play in Hamburg, I still wanted to play in Kitzbuhel, to say goodbye, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His win over Federer was his 569th and last, losing his next six singles matches before officially announcing his retirement in March 2018.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"636\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-821248896-1024x636.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Martin Rose\/Bongarts\/Getty Images\" \/>Photo by Martin Rose\/Bongarts\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t retire [after beating Federer], but I never won another match again, every time it got tight or close, set points or trying to win a match, I couldn\u2019t do it,\u201d said Haas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a great thing to say, the last match I won on tour was against Roger Federer on grass, I mean that\u2019s not a bad thing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time I see Roger, I say the last time we played, I got you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tommy Haas explains why he thinks his tennis career was \u2018pretty average\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Haas enjoyed a stellar tennis career before retiring in 2018, winning 15 tour-level titles, reaching a career-high ranking of number two in the world.<\/p>\n<p>He did, however, fail to win a Grand Slam title, despite qualifying for four semi-finals and now shares how he reflects on his time in tennis.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"inline-links multi\">\n<li>1999 Australian Open SF \u2013 Tommy Haas lost to Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 3-6, 4-6, 5-7<\/li>\n<li>2002 Australian Open SF \u2013 Tommy Haas lost to Marat Safin, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 0-6, 2-6<\/li>\n<li>2007 Australian Open SF \u2013 Tommy Haas lost to Fernando Gonzalez, 1-6, 3-6, 1-6<\/li>\n<li>2009 Wimbledon SF \u2013 Tommy Haas lost to Roger Federer, 6-7, 5-7, 3-6<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cIt was a pleasure to play on tour for 20 years, with, of course, lots of ups and downs,\u201d said Haas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome injuries that I had to come back from, but you have your good angel and your devil angel on both shoulders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne is telling you basically your career was just pretty much average because you didn\u2019t really achieve the things you wanted to achieve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUltimately that was to become a Grand Slam champion, and I felt like I had a good chance in 2001 and 2002, when I was playing my best tennis, then things changed around when I had two back-to-back shoulder surgeries and I had to re-develop my game a little bit, didn\u2019t have that pop on my serve anymore.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2198053900-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Chris Arjoon\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images\" \/>Photo by Chris Arjoon\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust proud of the fact that I was able to still go out there, compete, and win matches, win titles. But never really reaching the pinnacle, but that\u2019s how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Haas may not have won a Grand Slam, but he did pick up an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/olympics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Olympic<\/a> silver medal and won a Masters 1000 title at his home tournament in Stuttgart.<\/p>\n<p>The German\u2019s legacy will live long in the memory, after producing some tennis that was well above average during his time on tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Federer was dominant on grass courts, winning 19 titles on the surface during his tennis career. Throughout&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4294,13325,79,1068,47399,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-102725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-roger-federer","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-tommy-haas","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114510264258493725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}