German veteran Tommy Haas reached his first final in Washington at the ATP/WTA hardcourt event on Saturday on his seventh attempt with a 6-3, 7-5 defeat of top seed Mardy Fish.
“To finally reach the final on my seventh time here is crazy,” said Haas, who did not commit an unforced error and lost only two points in serve in the first set. “Who would have thought to have done that at my age. It means a lot to me, to be in this final is a great feeling.”
The 34-year-old Haas was aiming for his 14th career ATP Tour title yesterday. Haas is currently ranked 36th in the world after starting the season at 205th because of a string of injuries, including hip and elbow surgeries in recent years.
Photo: EPA
Fourth seeded Haas, who was ranked as high as second on the ATP in 2002, will face second seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, who beat eighth seed Sam Querrey, 6-4, 6-4 in 74 minutes. Dolgopolov had eight aces and a break of serve per set.
Dolgopolov will try to win his second ATP title after ending Querrey’s seven match win streak.
In the women’s final, Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia upset top seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-1 to win the third title of her career.
Pavlyuchenkova won her semi-final just 24 hours earlier despite suffering from a heat-related illness. Haas will be playing his third final in his last five events. He dominated in the opening set, but got some stiff resistance from Fish in the second. The American forced Haas to save a pair of break points in the second game of the set before the pair settled back into their battle on serve.
The German struck after saving a set point in the tenth game as he won a 19-point exchange to hold serve.
Haas then took advantage with a break a game later in which Fish saved two break points with aces, but double-faulted into a third, which Haas converted for 6-5.
Haas served it out a game later to end in 93 minutes with 21 winners and just seven unforced errors.
“That doesn’t happen very often — especially with my game,” said the 16-year ATP veteran, who is into his 24th final.
“I knew I had to come out aggressive,” Haas said.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Chris Wood has fired Nottingham Forest into surprise UEFA Champions League contention and now the striker wants to score the goals to help New Zealand make history at the FIFA World Cup. New Zealand are strong favorites to qualify out of the Oceania region over the next week and reach the World Cup for only the third time. At the country’s two previous appearances at the finals, in 1982 and 2010, they have failed to win a match in six attempts. With Wood captaining the side and leading from the front, he told local media yesterday that the current squad can finally deliver
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
RSS