Roger Federer to play veteran Tommy Haas at Stuttgart Open
Tommy Haas lined up a secondround meeting with Roger Federer, while seeded players Gilles Simon and Viktor Troicki both made an early exit from the Stuttgart Open on Tuesday.
The 39-year-old Haas, playing for the last time at the grass-court tournament, defeated PierreHugues Herbert 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in their first-round match. The victory set up another clash with the Swiss great, who has already won 15 titles on grass and is playing again after a 10-week break.
“I’m really looking forward to playing the next game against one of my closest friends,” Haas said. “We had many great battles in the past. He is the best player on grass in history. I’ll definitely need to play better to have a chance. But you never know what can happen.”
Feliciano Lopez of Spain upset the seventh-seeded Simon 6-3, 63, while Benoit Paire of France beat the eighth-seeded Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-4.
German qualifiers Peter Gojowczyk and Yannick Hanfmann both advanced, as did fellow countryman Philipp Kohlschreiber, who was leading 6-1 when Marcos Baghdatis retired.
Another German, Florian Mayer, later lost 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (1) to Jeremy Chardy of France, who next plays Lopez.
Jerzy Janowicz of Poland defeated Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, and Bernard Tomic prevailed over Stephane Robert of France, 6-1, 57, 6-2.
The top four seeded players Federer, Grigor Dimitrov, Tomas Berdych and Lucas Pouille - received byes to the second round.
This is the third year the event is being played on grass.
Roger Federer makes his return to action in Stuttgart on Wednesday, insisting he will play a full schedule across the second half of the year.
The Swiss great has enjoyed a stunning year so far, beginning with an 18th Grand Slam title by winning the Australian Open in February, and his latest comments will whet the appetite ahead of Wimbledon.
Federer followed his success in Australia by claiming the Indian Wells and Miami Masters titles before taking the clay season off, but with the red-dirt campaign now over the 35-year-old has set his sights on grass and hard-court glory.
“There are no more breaks now, I’ve had enough breaks,” Federer told the ATP’s official website.
“I’m a practice world champion now and that’s not who I want to be. I want to be a champ on the match courts.
“So I’m going to be playing a regular schedule for the second part of the season... and the beginning is at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart.”
Federer will face Pierre-Hugues Herbert or Tommy Haas in Stuttgart and will then turn his attention to Halle - which you can see live on Sky Sports - where he is a five-time champion.
Nadal’s clay-court domination culminated in a tenth French Open crown and now, following a 10-week lay-off, all eyes will be on Federer in Germany over the next fortnight as he battles it out for top honours once again.
“I was terribly surprised to win the Australian Open and to back it up and win the sunshine double in Indian Wells and Miami was a complete surprise to me,” said Federer.
“I think Rafa winning the French Open is less of a surprise because he’d done it nine times before. I was hoping he was going to dominate the clay-court season like the olden days.
“It maybe had something to do with Murray having a bit of a letdown after his great finish to last year and Novak not playing his absolute best. We were able to take advantage of the fact that we were in great shape and came refreshed into the season after our injuries at the end of last year.”
The Rafa-Roger rivalry has been renewed this year and it’s Federer who has the upper hand, winning all three of their high profile encounters, including the Melbourne and Miami finals.