After six months without an official match, former world rankings runner-up Tommy Haas has declared his tennis career over.
“The last match I won on the tour was against Roger Federer,”Haas told the Californian newspaper Desert Sun. In June he had beaten the Swiss player on grass in Stuttgart, but at the beginning of August Haas lost his last match against the Warsteiner Jan-Lennard Struff in Kitzbühel.
At the Australian Open in Melbourne in January, Haas (39) was adviser to Lucas Pouille, a Frenchman, but he reiterated his intention to return to the ATP tour once again, saying:”I’m still burning,”Haas told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. This fire now seems to be extinguished.
Haas says:”It’s not so easy to get in shape if you don’t live for it all the time and breathe like a tennis pro. He does not believe that he still has the “power” for 60 or 120 minutes on the court. His last comeback in January 2017 was of particular importance to him,”It wasn’t about winning or losing,” said Haas:”It was about going back to some places with the family and enjoying it.
The father of two children has enough tasks in life after his tennis career, first his main job as tournament director in Indian Wells (from the age of 8. March). Haas also wants to compete against other tennis pensioners on the Champions Tour:”The reality is as follows: I will be back on the 3rd day of the Champions Tour. April 40 years old and the body is changing,”Haas said:”It’s a wise step not to torture him any further.”