PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 13, 2002

Tommy Haas

MODERATOR: Questions for Tommy.

TOMMY HAAS: They were okay. Just, you know, a little bit windy, a little bit cold. Not too bad.

TOMMY HAAS: Not really.

TOMMY HAAS: Yeah, I've played a couple times now. You know, last time was at the Australian Open. Obviously, it was a different time. It was a new start again. You know, I think he played extremely well today. On the big points he stepped up, you know, risked a lot, had some success with that. I don't think I was playing some of my best game. Obviously, my shoulder is bothering me too much to really go out and serve really well. I really have to consider if I'm going to keep on playing or take a little break.

TOMMY HAAS: It's been a good three, four weeks now. It was actually bothering me before the Australian Open a little bit. It's starting to really worry me a little bit.

TOMMY HAAS: Yeah. It's just a tendon that's a little bit overplayed, I guess, a lot of fluids in there. Best thing you can do is kind of, you know, take a little break. Afterwards, I have to strengthen it. When I have pain -- at the moment I can't do that because I have pain doing it, so...

TOMMY HAAS: Yeah, I mean, I still want to continue to play. One thing they say is to keep strengthening it while I can without pain, try to do that. Sometimes I have good days and sometimes I have pretty bad days. You know, I don't really know what to do exactly, to be quite honest. Obviously, now I have a week or a few days off. You know, see how it feels next week. Obviously, I would like to play, maybe take a little break after that. I have no idea.

TOMMY HAAS: Maybe, yeah. Obviously, could. That's a risk I'm taking right now. I really have to be careful.

TOMMY HAAS: No, I don't think there's that fear. If you can continue playing on it, making it worse and worse, you never know. But that's a question. You know, that's why either before Miami or after, I'm going to see my doctor in Germany and make sure everything is fine.

TOMMY HAAS: They don't know. I mean, I don't want to take any play away from Todd. He still played extremely well, I thought, today.

TOMMY HAAS: No, I think he plays always a pretty similar style. He might have served a little bit more to my forehand today than he used to. You know, I think he really played also well from the baseline, didn't make easy mistakes at all. You know, came up with some big shots at the right time. You know, he took pretty good advantage of my second serve. So he played well.

TOMMY HAAS: Yeah. I really don't have any timing, really no control of my speed, my shoulder right now. It's a mess.

TOMMY HAAS: Both. It's never really feeling that hundred percent. I really don't have any control over it at the moment. It's been bothering me for a series of time now. Like I said, some days it's fine, some days it's bad. Have to see what's going on.

TOMMY HAAS: Yeah, it's obviously not a good time right now. It could be worse, but it's not. I'm looking forward to coming here, playing a good tournament. These are tournaments you need to play well in order to play the best. It's a little disappointing, you know, losing second round, obviously. But, you know, got to keep your head up high and start to get really healthy again, see what happens in the future.