Tommy Haas on defeating Novak Djokovic twice in 2009: "I kinda got under his skin a little bit"

Tommy Haas reflected on his two wins against Novak Djokovic in 2009 and shed light on the factors behind them.

Haas and Djokovic faced each other nine times on the ATP tour, with the former only winning thrice. Two of the German's wins came back-to-back on grass in 2009. The duo locked horns in the final of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, where Haas won 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1 to clinch his first title on the surface. Later that year, at the Wimbledon Championships, Haas combined powerful baseline shots with the serve-and-volley to beat Djokovic 7-5, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.

Looking back on the Halle title win in an episode of the Court-Side with Beilinson Tennis podcast, Haas stated that a peculiar pre-final ritual played a role in his victory.

“I think in Halle before the finals, from my understanding, there's always a great fun event after the semis where you know they always had like a little bit of a show, a concert going on that night. And the two finalists would have a little speech to give, a little Q&A on stage. And from my understanding, I heard that Novak was out up until about maybe 3 or 3:30 in the morning knowing that he has to play a final the next day,” he explained.

The former player stated that the condition of the grass courts at the Halle tournament played to his advantage.

“And maybe I took that little bit to my advantage,” he added. “I was playing some really good tennis and the grass courts in Halle also felt a little bit different. You would get away with like some stabbing volleys that are not great and some bad bounces here and there and so the movements sometimes you couldn't really much with that all the time. Typical kind of like grass for tennis in the old days,” Haas said.

The 2000 Sydney Olympics bronze medalist said that the win in Halle gave him confidence when he was drawn to face Djokovic again in the Wimbledon quarterfinals soon after.

“I was obviously feeling confident. I think that helped me when I played him in the quarters at Wimbledon. Because I felt like, ‘okay, I just beat him, if I can kind of have that same mentality, that same attacking mode of tennis’ ,” he said.

Haas stated that he strategically got under the World No. 1's skin by having a vocal presence and being aggressive in his play during their match

“That was my mentality going into that match and it worked out well. And I kinda got under his skin a little bit, jumping on top of it and playing aggressive, chipping and charging a little bit and that was a good strategy,” he added.

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Tommy Haas backed Novak Djokovic earlier this year, called his absence from Indian Wells Masters a “disgrace”

Novak Djokovic has not played in Indian Wells since 2019.

Tommy Haas currently serves as the tournament director for the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, a tournament that Novak Djokovic has been absent from since 2019.

The US government was still seeking proof of COVID-19 vaccination from anybody entering the country at the time of the tournament this year in May. This meant Djokovic was forced to skip the event, given his anti-vaccination stance.

Former World No. 2 Haas publicly expressed his support for Djokovic before the Masters 1000 event and hoped that the COVID-19 emergency declarations would be relaxed sooner to allow the 35-year-old to enter the country.

“They’re supposed to lift those mandates by mid-April. It would be nice to see if we could maybe lift those a little earlier and have him [Novak Djokovic] come to play. I think he wants to play, so we should give him the chance. It would be a disgrace in my eyes if he wasn’t coming to these events, or not allowed to come,” Haas said in a press conference.