EUROCARD OPEN

October 28, 1999

Tommy Haas

ATP: Ladies and Gentlemen, we'll take some questions in English first for Tommy.

TOMMY HAAS: Is there what?

TOMMY HAAS: Basically, yeah, it could happen like that. He's serving extremely well, very fast. He's a lefty, you know, which is very tough to read the serve. Different spin coming at you. If you don't really feel a hundred percent, don't focus on the second serves that he hits, you can't use your chances, easy to end up in a tiebreak or you're going to lose the one break.

TOMMY HAAS: Probably. You can see he won the Compaq Grand Slam Cup; he won Vienna. He's probably one of the most - if not the most - dangerous indoor players right now.

TOMMY HAAS: Maybe. I don't feel a hundred percent; haven't been feeling well for the last week. I don't like to go out on the court when I don't feel a hundred percent. I have to really talk to my coach, my father, some people that I trust, if it makes sense to keep playing next week or the following week, you know. Just trying to get myself out there and trying to get myself more points for Hannover, I don't think that's the most important thing for my career. I'd rather be healthy and feel good when I walk out on the court no matter what tournament I play. I have to make a decision soon.

TOMMY HAAS: I don't know. I was just trying to cruise, give my best. I don't know exactly how I feel right now. Obviously not good.

TOMMY HAAS: Yeah, just a little bit feeling down the whole time, trying to get up and look forward to actually try to, you know, go out there and try to win, you know, just trying to push myself mentally. The body just doesn't want to do anything that I tell it to. That's a problem. It's been there for a week. I went to the doctor last couple days to take some blood. They found some bacteria, some virus. If it's still there next week when I take my blood test, I maybe need to take some rest and get away from it. Like I said, I don't like to play if I'm not a hundred percent. If that's the case, then maybe I just have to get ready for the Australian Open.

TOMMY HAAS: No, not really. First time.

TOMMY HAAS: Definitely. It's been my best year so far on the Tour. I reached No. 10 in the world, got my first title. Davis Cup, we stayed in the World Group. There were a lot of exciting things for me this year. I don't regret one bit. Maybe still I could do a little bit better in the scheduling of how to play the tournaments right. With the new ranking system next year, you have to play all the Super 9's. That will already change a lot in the way you're going to play tournaments. In one way, might be good. You can really focus on the big tournaments, which I like to do anyway, see what happens.

TOMMY HAAS: It's been a long year, definitely. For me it's a new experience obviously. I think I played the most matches this year, which I'm happy about obviously. I mean, usually the last two years before that, I would have lost more times in the first round and second round. This year I stayed more consistent. Maybe that's another change, you know, I have to get used to. But it was a great year. You know, I look forward to next.

TOMMY HAAS: I didn't say I'm not playing the next two weeks. I might. Maybe I can still qualify for it, maybe not. If not, I think my German colleague has a good chance, Nicolas Kiefer, to be there. It's nearby where he lives anyway. If they have one German, I think they would be very happy, too.