Roddick Back In Final For Fourth Year, To Face Haas

In the opening match of the day, Tommy Haas survived a two-and-a-half hour battle with Romania’s Andrei Pavel, to reach his first ATP final since reaching the final of the Telecom Italia Masters (Rome) in 2002. Haas took the first set and was up 4-2 in the second set tiebreak before Pavel reeled off five straight points to force the deciding set. The two exchanged long rallies early in the third before Haas broke to go up 4-3. Serving for the set at 5-4 Haas faced a break point to the tough Romanian before closing out the match with some solid first serves.

In the night match on Gallery Furniture Stadium, Andy Roddick went through in straight sets against Luis Horna, who was trying to become the second Peruvian to reach the final in this event after Jaime Yzaga in 1991. Roddick had little trouble with Horna breaking him in the first service game and again midway through the second set to move to 18-1 at this tournament and notch his 12th consecutive win dating back to the Pacific Life Open in mid March.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Haas: “This is probably the toughest [since my comeback]. I had a tough one with Albert Costa at Indian Wells, which was also 2 hours 20 minutes, I think, but this match definitely means a little more — to be in the final again after such a long time. Being back, which is just great for me.”

“I’ve been through a lot of stuff the last 16 months since my first surgery and another one in July 2003. Sometimes you have days or weeks where you wonder if it’s ever going to be the same. Even today, you wonder if you”ll get back to where you once were. But days like today, really put everything in perspective and all the hard work that I did, and the rehab. To be in the final tomorrow is a great feeling and that’s why you work so hard.”

“I don’t think about what happened before my surgery. I can”t compare it to now. That was my first career. I’m looking forward to my second career. So in some ways, I’m relearning again and starting over.”

About winning a title again
“Being in a final now, anything can happen. So we”ll just go out there and see what happens. If I play Andy, we”ve played a few times and he’s never beaten me. Obviously he’s a different player than when we played last but we”ll see.”

Pavel:
“He’s been a great player, he is a great player and I wasn”t expecting him to serve that well and he served well. I woke up a little tired today and I didn”t quite move at my best. Playing Miami and RiverOaks, it’s been a lot of matches.”

“I was trying to fight and come back and I did. I had chances to break him in the third set, but he played well. What can I say, he came up with the shots and after the break in the third set, I was 30-love up and he came up with the serves.”

“He’s in the final, he’s getting confidence back. When he’s serving like that I don’t see a big difference between him now and before. If he stays like this, stays healthy and plays like this, he”ll get a lot of wild cards, he’s a big name in tennis, and he still has a protected ranking he can use also to get more points. If he plays this way, he has a huge chance.”

Roddick: “That’s the best I’ve served all week. My arm felt great tonight, I don’t think I was threatened at all on my serve. I got the break and cruised on both sets.”

About fourth final in a row
“That’s a good stat. I feel really comfortable here. It’s a nice relaxing week to sort of kick off the clay court season. It’s definitely a good stepping stone for me and I’m thrilled to be back in the final here.

FINAL PREVIEW

Tommy Haas and Andy Roddick face off in an exciting final at the 2004 U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships. Haas has not won an ATP title since the Masters Series Stuttgart in October 2001 and his last final was at the Masters Series Rome in May 2002. He sat out the entire 2003 season with a shoulder injury and will be looking to capture his sixth career ATP title in 15 finals.

Roddick, meanwhile, has not been lacking for titles this year. He won in San Jose at the Siebel Open to start the U.S. indoor season and then captured the 2004 NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami two weeks ago. Standing at No. 2 in the INDESIT ATP 2004 Race, Roddick could pick up 35 points on Roger Federer, who is not playing this week, with a win in Houston.

Haas brings a 3-0 head-to-head edge over Roddick into the match. The last time the two played was in Rome two years ago. Haas has won six consecutive sets from Roddick dating back to 2001 and has yet to lose a set on clay against the American. But things have changed since then, admits Haas, with Roddick having captured three Masters Series titles, won the US Open and finished as World No. 1 in the INDESIT ATP Race last year.

No German has won this event before and Haas will be looking to become the first German to win an ATP title in 2004 with a victory on Sunday. Roddick, meanwhile, will be looking to extend his 12-match winning streak that began with six wins in Miami, two wins in the Davis Cup and another four wins this week in Houston.