Although Barbara Haas lost her first round in the singles at the WTA tournament in Linz, she celebrated a victory in the doubles with far-reaching consequences. In a conversation with tennisnet, the 22-year-old made a declaration of war and revealed what she still needed to jump to the top of the world.
Slightly disappointed Barbara Haas and her double partner Belinda Bencic left the showcourt in the TipsArena in Linz on Thursday evening. Disappointed because they felt that a win against Johanna Larsson and Kirsten Flipkens in the second round would have been possible.
But only a few minutes later, Austria’s current best tennis player was again in a good mood towards tennisnet. “Double is always cool, especially with the Belinda,” she said about her partner, with whom she gets on very well in the truest sense of the word: “Her second mother tongue is Slovak, my Czech. We’ll mix it up with German on the court again and again.”
Haas has a close, long-lasting friendship with the Swiss Bencic. “We’ve known each other since my first international tournament, which should have been in the U10. Over the years we have often played against each other in our youth,” Haas explained.
From the organizers of the 250,000 US dollar tournament in Linz, Bencic gave her a wild card for the double main field, which solved a big problem.
“I don’t have a double ranking. Actually, I wanted to play doubles at the 125,000 tournaments, but I never got in there,” said Haas, who had played her last doubles match without a wild card in February 2016.
Haas will appear in the double rankings next week after winning the first round in two sets against Paula Kania/Cornelia Lister. “I’m very happy. If I want to play where, I can do it now.”
For Haas in Linz the single tournament was already over on Wednesday. In her first match against a top 10 player, the Styrian-born player lost in two sets. “I come here and I think that my strokes are not enough and that I have to show something special against these players. But that’s not the case,” Haas was annoyed.
And continues: “That’s why it’s important to play such high tournaments in order to get matches against stronger players. Then it’s just a matter of time before I play constantly at a higher level.”
However, Haas is currently in a stalemate: In the qualifications for WTA tournaments, there is a great danger of having to travel home without points in one’s luggage. At ITF tournaments, the chance of success is greater, but matches against the world’s best are denied.
Next week, Haas will be competing in Luxembourg qualifying, as last year, before travelling to an ITF event in Oslo. She has planned further tournaments at the “Challenger” level in Europe before she wants to end her season in mid-November. “But I need tournaments like Linz more often,” said the sister of multiple state champion Patricia, who has meanwhile ended her career.
Her base, where Barbara Haas will also complete her preparations for the new season, will remain in Linz like the years before, although the ÖTV’s performance centre will be dissolved there. Haas will also no longer receive funding from the association in the future.
“The reason was that I was already 22 years old,” Haas was annoyed. “The association thinks you’re old there. But I think I definitely have my best years ahead of me.”
Haas finds it “a pity” that she always lacks strong training partners in Linz. I must take it as it is and hope that we will become more in the future.”