For the first time in almost eight years, Philipp Kohlschreiber has reached the quarter-finals of a master’s tournament. In Indian Wells, the last German professional to do so was Tommy Haas, who now serves as tournament director there.
Even tournament director Tommy Haas was astonished: The fact that his long-time tour colleague Philipp Kohlschreiber had turned his first match ball into Indian Wells after 89 minutes and reached the quarter-finals was a real surprise for the almost 40-year-old “tennis pensioner”.
My current tennis level is increasing from week to week and luckily everything positive comes together at this tournament,” said Kohlschreiber, who had already reached the round of 16 rather unexpectedly by beating the third in the world rankings, Marin Cilic from Croatia. Now the Frenchman Pierre-Hughes Herbert was the next sporting victim, Kohlschreiber won 6:4 and 7:6 (7:1).
The right-hander, who lives in Kitzbühel, experiences another sporting spring in California in the late autumn of his career. Actually, the 34-year-old seemed to have already had his best days. Eight years ago (Toronto) Kohli was in the last round of the last eight in a master’s tournament, his best world ranking (16) was in 2012.
But Kohlschreiber had always felt that his professional career, which has now lasted 17 years, would not simply end without a hint of success:”I know and knew that something was still to come,” explained the veteran professional, who could actually set a personal record in Indian Wells.
With a victory against Juan Martin del Potro from Argentina on Friday, Kohlschreiber would be in the semi-finals for the first time in a “1000s tournament”. His backhand has also improved, I’ll have to be careful,” said Kohlschreiber.
Kohlschreiber, however, can no longer take the positive balance against the current tournament director. He met Haas seven times between 2008 and 2013 and remained victorious four times.
Here the single tableau of the men in Indian Wells