Australian Open: Hard work for Haas
Tommy Haas made hard work of reaching the last 16 in the Australian Open today.
The German, seeded seventh, won a gruelling five-setter against American Todd Martin, conqueror of Pete Sampras in the fourth round last year.
Haas was two sets to one down and an early break down in the fourth before triumphing 6/7 6/3 3/6 6/4 6/1.
The match was not without incident. The umpire spotted that Haas’s cap had two sponsors’ logos on it and with the 23-year-old from Hamburg refusing to change because he said others did not fit, one of the logos was inked out with a pen.
Haas, a beaten semi-finalist three years ago, next plays 11th seed Roger Federer from Switzerland, another of the sport’s brightest prospects.
Former world number one Marat Safin was a straight-sets victor over fellow Russian Mikhail Youzhny, but during it he had a heated exchange with his umpire.
That stemmed from the tossing of a ball according to Safin back to a ball-boy, but according to Norm Kryst it was at a line judge and he gave him a code violation.
‘‘I’m just so disappointed that these kind of things happen to me with the same umpire,’’ said the 2000 US Open champion.
‘‘It happened in Dusseldorf. He took me a point, he took me a game, for nothing.
‘‘This was nothing. I have nothing against linesmen. The guy just wants to show off. I don’t know what is his problem the guy almost destroyed our game.
‘‘He has to use his brain sometimes. And first of all, I think, when he is talking to somebody he has to take off the glasses (sunglasses) as a matter of respect.
‘‘I hate when somebody is talking to me with the glasses. I think it’s not right. He’s talking to me like ‘I’m the king of the court and I can do whatever I want’.
‘‘I have my opinion. ‘Safin is going nuts on the court’; of course it would be great the newspaper will look unbelievable. But it’s not right. I have nothing against anybody, but this guy is crazy. Why should I respect him if he doesn’t respect me?
‘‘I think he likes to be involved in the match. He can play tennis after the tournament. I think I’m right and I’m going to defend myself.’’
Safin had to wait to discover his next opponent, Pete Sampras’s testing-looking match with Nicolas Escude being delayed by the Haas contest spilling into the scheduled start of the evening session.
