Clay Court Final Finds Familiar Face

CLAY COURT CHAMPIONSHIPS AT A GLANCE Purse: $380,000. When: Today-Sunday. Where: Westside Tennis Club

The former world No. 2 earned his shot this afternoon at the current world No. 2. The U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships final will be a special occasion for Tommy Haas and Andy Roddick — but for different reasons.

Roddick was supposed to still be here. It’s his fourth consecutive chance to play for the Houston title, and he has won twice. For Haas, in contrast, it’s much more about the journey than the destination.

The 26-year-old German is fighting his way back from a shoulder injury that cost him 16 months out of the prime of his career, a career that once seemed to have no upside limits.

Like Roddick’s today.

After finishing 2003 at No. 1, the 21-year-old American seeks his third championship of the new season after making short work of the Peruvian clay-court maestro Luis Horna 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday night on the strength of, surprise, surprise, his serve.

“That’s definitely the best I’ve felt in the tournament,” the top-seeded Roddick said. “I had my groove. My arm was alive. I didn”t feel threatened very often.”

Earlier, Haas survived a gut — and shoulder — check against Andrei Pavel, needing three sets and almost 2 1/2 hours to subjugate the fifth-seeded Romanian 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4.

“(Tommy) loves clay,” Roddick said. “He’s playing very well. He’s going to come out with nothing to lose.”

Horna, if not exactly a household name, has beaten the current No. 1, Roger Federer, and French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, and he had gotten the better of Roddick, too, in their only previous meeting, the Bermuda Challenger three years ago.

But Roddick has grown exponentially as a player since then. Haas, who is 3-0 himself against him, was only too willing to bear witness to same.

“There’s really not much to say about Andy,” he said. “He’s a tremendous player. He has one of the biggest serves in the game, and he’s playing with a lot of confidence. The surface, the balls here, they pretty much suit his game.

“We did play a couple times. He still has not defeated me, but that was a couple years ago, and he has improved a lot since then. I’m sure he”d like to get revenge.”

Roddick ran his record on the clay at Westside Tennis Club to 18-1 by serving 10 aces and breaking Horna once in each set. He’s seeking a fifth career clay-court championship and his 14th overall in just a fourth full season. His only loss in this tournament was a three-setter to Andre Agassi in last year’s final.

“I feel very comfortable here,” he said. “It’s a good way to kick off the clay-court season.”

Haas has reached 14 finals in eight years as a touring pro — winning five times — but the most recent one was in Rome’s Foro Italico almost two years ago. That’s also when he last beat Roddick and when he reached No. 2 behind Lleyton Hewitt.

But Agassi beat him soundly, and, more ominously, his shoulder ached throughout the match. It had been bothering him since the Australian Open, and he”d had an exploratory MRI. Despite numerous visits with his doctor, the pain was excruciating by the time he arrived at the French Open. Then, right after Roland Garros, his parents suffered severe injuries in a motorcycle accident, so he didn”t play for the next seven weeks.

“It helped for a little while,” Haas said, “but sure enough, the pain came back.”

He finally underwent surgery to repair tendon damage in December, and he had a follow-up operation last July to improve the joint’s mobility. He wanted to be back on court for the Australian Open in January, but it would be February before he thought he was ready.

“This is a great feeling,” Haas said. “It’s real nice. I’ve been through a lot of stuff. Sometimes you had days or weeks when you wondered if you were ever going to come back. It’s going to be a long, hard road, but days like today put everything back in perspective. This is why you work so hard and you never give up.”

The fifth-seeded Pavel tested him, to be sure. They played for two hours, 22 minutes in sultry, blustery conditions. When Haas broke the Romanian to claim the first set, Pavel seemed to be coming apart.

But suddenly Pavel snapped to, fighting back to hold and breaking Haas in the third game. Although Haas responded in kind, the level of both men’s tennis picked up precipitously — particularly their serving — and they sped to a tiebreaker, which Pavel took control of quickly with a mini-break on a deftly executed drop shot. He forced the third set with a 121 mph ace.

But, to hear him tell it, he was playing on borrowed time after a busy three-week patch that began with his reaching the Nasdaq-100 Open quarterfinals, where he was battling a bad sinus infection.

“I woke up a little bit tired today,” Pavel said. “I felt I didn”t move at my best. Also, playing Key Biscayne, River Oaks last week … I’ve had a lot of matches.”

Pavel saved a break point in the fifth game of the third set, but Haas got the decisive break in the seventh game on a Pavel double fault. Still, there was a bit of work left to do. In each of his last two service games, Haas quickly fell behind love-30. He won four straight points in the first one, but, serving for the final, he had to erase a break point, doing so with an ace that nicked the center line.

Included among the final five points of the match were three more Haas aces — of four in the entire match — and the service winner to Pavel’s backhand that put a wrap on the proceedings.

“Being down love-30 again,” Haas said, “the last thing I want to do is go to 5-all and have to play another tiebreaker in the third. I don’t know where these serves came from. I just tried to hit the first one in.”

He complained of no shoulder soreness and said he was looking forward to the challenge Roddick would present.

“If Andy wins, that is,” Haas said, “Personally, I think he will.”

It was never in doubt.