TMS - STUTTGART

October 19, 2001

Tommy Haas

MODERATOR: Questions for Tommy.

TOMMY HAAS: Yeah. I mean, if I could do that every time, I would be okay with it. You know, obviously it's tough to jump into a good start for me, for some reason, this week. I think Tim played extremely well the first couple of games - served big, served and volleyed - so I didn't get much of a rhythm at the beginning. When you get broken in the first game of the set, things don't go that well already. You kind of have like a negative mentality right away. But I just hung in there.

TOMMY HAAS: I've seen him play where he can keep it up. What I was trying to do is just don't get broken early in the second set because it happened last year in Vienna that I think I got broken every set pretty early, so kind of tried to hold serve. All I tried to do was hold his serve and tried to get him thinking by 15-30 or 15-40 on his serve. That's exactly what happened at 4-3. Plus I think the crowd jumped into it and got to him mentally a bit I think.

TOMMY HAAS: Yeah, definitely.

TOMMY HAAS: You never really get a break until you hold serve afterwards, then you confirm that break. It was important for me to win that 6-3, especially being down Love-40. You know, you don't want to kind of like give it away, but make him work for it. Somehow I managed to win that game and the set. I think it was very important.

TOMMY HAAS: Maybe.