Desert Magazine: What do you think are the essential physical gifts that a person should possess in order to have a chance at playing a high level of tennis?
Tommy Haas: I think it helps when you have some hand-eye coordination and understanding [of] how the ball bounces. The earlier and the faster you get to hit the ball back and forth over the net, the easier it becomes. It's just such a hard sport to get to a level to have fun. You lose a lot of kids sometimes because you can roll around a soccer ball, you can dribble a basketball, you can play ping pong or whatever – there's a lot of other things that are easier [and] much faster than really learning how to play tennis. At the same time, if you have a passion and sort of a love for the game, you can learn all those things, but it takes time and effort.
Desert: You turned pro in 1996 when you were 18, and success came pretty quickly. In '99, 2000, and 2001, you were still pretty young and you achieved quite a bit: a silver medal in the Olympics and semis at the Australian Open. What kind of clicked for you at that age that gave you that access to success?
Haas: Looking back at my tennis career, even as a junior, I was doing the right things. I did all the things where you just do the check marks, thinking like, "Okay, I'm doing the right things to get to where I want to go to." And then turning pro in '96, I remember I got my first wild card in Indianapolis and I got to the quarterfinals right away, winning three matches [and] losing to Pete Sampras, and I was like, "Okay, this is not so hard in some ways.” Then, you start traveling every week and it's a grind and you have good days [and] bad days. I would sometimes not be as focused as I probably should have been, and that cost me matches because of it. I got to number 10 in the world as a 21-year-old. So, I sort of reached some goals. I felt at some point I needed to mature and really buckle down and be much more professional. I think in 2001, it was a light that went off, and I really started putting together good weeks and then taking every match as a final, where before maybe I wasn't. I was really going after my goals, and I felt like I had a good chance of maybe winning my first [Grand] Slam in 2002.
Desert: The accident that your father had put your career on hold in 2002. Can you tell us about that?
Haas: That was a pretty turbulent year. I started off playing extremely well at the end of 2001, winning my first Masters 1000, and then had a really good chance at the Australian Open 2002 to get to a final. I lost, being up two sets to one against [Marat] Safin [in the semis]. I continued to play quite well and got to career-high number two in May after getting to the finals in Rome, losing to [Andre] Agassi there. I returned to Florida [after the French Open]; my parents were there and they got into a really bad motorcycle accident. My dad was in a coma for about three weeks, so I decided not to go play Wimbledon and to stay back and make sure that when he wakes up, I'm around. My mom and my dad got lucky in a way that they're still obviously here; it could have been way worse, but it was still bad enough at the time. And looking back, I'm sort of upset about the fact that my dad wasn't awake because he probably would've told me, "Listen, you’ve got to go play Wimbledon." But, in this situation, it felt like with my sisters around, we needed to be a family and support them. There's sometimes more important things than tennis.
Desert: I can't think of another player who has had so many career-threatening injuries, and yet you've come back again and again. What drove you – especially later in your career in 2007 and 2011, when you fought to get back in the rankings of the top 10 and the top 20 – what drove you back to the court?
Haas: I love to compete and I love the game of tennis. I loved playing it as a kid, but I still like to play today. So, I feel like when I have the chance and my body is feeling good and I'm trying to do the best that I can, I really enjoy doing it. Of course, I became a dad at 32, [then] I had hip surgery and nobody really knew exactly if we're going to recover from that as well coming back at 32, 33. But then, I had the idea, "Listen, why don't I play as long as I can and see if my daughter can actually watch her dad play?" And so, that gave me motivation again. And then there's always also the aspect of what else would I be doing, to be honest? I love this life, and that's also my job. I don't see myself [working] a 9-to-5 office position. My daughter got to see me play nonetheless, winning, actually, my last match on tour against Roger Federer on grass in Germany. So, I always felt like if I was healthy and playing at a really high level and I was mentally competing at a high level, I always felt like I was one of the guys that was very, very hard to beat, and I always felt like I could win against anybody.
Desert: The year before you retired, you were approached with an offer to become tournament director at Indian Wells. How did that come about?
Haas: I always felt like I wanted to stick around and be involved in tennis. I've been approached by players to help them on tour and coach them. If I'm going to coach, I'll be busy with that player for 36 to 42 weeks a year. That’s a number that I am not comfortable doing right now because I want to be around my kids because I know that time is precious and that's going to be gone at some point. But, they're going to be grown up here pretty shortly, and then there's definitely more time to consider that again. Through my partner, Sarah Foster, [and my] father-in-law (musician/music producer) David Foster, I have met a lot of interesting people. [Through Foster, I met] Larry Ellison … who is a big tennis fan. I had the privilege to stay in Mr. Ellison's private home during the tournament in Indian Wells when he purchased the event back in 2010. We became friends and always discussed tennis issues and life situations. When that position came about, I was like, "Hey, I would love to obviously be a part of it and learn the backbone of things … and how we can improve and how we can make it better for fans and sponsors all the time." So, that was a super opportunity, and I'm super grateful for it and I love every minute of it.
Desert: What does a tournament director do?
Haas: My most important field is making sure that the players are taken care of. At the end of the day, that's why we all go out there and support the great game of tennis. Besides the players, of course, you want to make sure that if someone is spending a lot of money to come to the event and watch tennis, you want to make sure that they have an unbelievable experience, as well. You're in charge of a lot of things that are going on behind the scenes, including making sure that the sponsors are taken care of. We are very blessed with the facility that we have, and we're very blessed with the fact that Mr. Ellison has invested a lot of money into making it a state-of-the-art facility. It's an experience you don't really get anywhere else in the world. It's really about getting together as a team and just making sure that as soon as [a player] steps foot in Indian Wells, they feel like everything is taken care of, that they have enough practice scores and tennis balls – all the little things that a player wants, all the little things that a fan can think of. It’s my role to make sure that everything is always up-to-date and hopefully better than any other tournament throughout the year.
Desert: I think half a million people agree with you.
Haas: We got to 497 (thousand) this past year, so hopefully we can hit that benchmark of 500,000 people this year. Ticket sales have been great so far. Again, tennis is obviously such a great global sport [that] we get a lot of local support, as well, and hopefully we can find a way to make that number go over 500,000 this year. I just got back from the Australian Open; I think they had record crowds again, getting close to 1.2 million in those 15 days, which is amazing. So, that's usually a good sign for us that we could probably break that record this year.
Desert: Do you play padel or pickleball?
Haas: I don't play pickleball. I've tried it a few times … and nothing against pickleball, but it's definitely not something I would want to play a lot. I don't like the wiffle ball and the sound of it and this little racket that you don't really get any feel [from]. It doesn't take much skill, in my opinion. [I] get quite upset when I see those lines drawn on a tennis court, to be honest. So, that's a great thing about padel; you can't play padel on a tennis court. If you want to play padel, you [have] got to actually find a court. It looks much better and it's a little bit more of a challenging game, in my opinion. I'm more of a padel player, for sure, than the other one. Padel is growing quite a lot [worldwide]. I still spend some time in southern Florida, and I see a lot of clubs being opened up there. A lot of my friends here in LA have put up a private padel court at their home, which is great. We have the Beverly Hills Invitational Open every year now. This will be the third year that we're having it. If you play tennis recreationally or even college tennis or even were a professional tennis player, a lot of those players are playing padel now. A lot of coaches on tour play it, as well. It's super fun and exciting, and I do think that we will see it in the Olympics – maybe not yet in LA in '28, but definitely in 2032.
Desert: Can you tell me about Match Point Impact?
Haas: Looking back, now you realize as a tennis player how financially of a burden it can be to pursue your dreams, even from just getting your racquet strung or getting equipment and getting balls or getting court time and paying coaches. It's not doable for everyone. [We are] trying to find communities or places that would take in kids and say, "Come on and play and join, if you can." It's something dear to my heart. It's something that we are really trying to grow and give back, even if it's just with equipment that we sometimes send to orphanages in Africa. We really started picking up on it more during COVID because we felt like we had to do something to stay active. Scott Williams, who's like a brother to me, helped me when I was a young boy at the Bollettieri Academy to give me the right direction in life. [He is a] very opinionated, loyal, straightforward, correct kind of a person. And I was very lucky to have someone like that in my life when I was away from my family. We try to raise some money and help kids all across the country [and] around the world who need help. We're just in the beginning phases right now, but it's something that we are proud of and trying to just do the right thing.
Desert: You’ve played in some Legends events. Will there be another ATP Champions Tour?
Haas: There was a Champion Series Tour that Jim Courier and his business partner, John Madison, were part of … [and] there was the Jimmy Connors Legends tour, where a lot of former players used to play, which seemed to be a lot of fun. I'm very disappointed that there isn't a Champions Tour created over the years that is sustainable. I've been involved behind the scenes helping to create a Legends Team Cup tour type of thing, hoping to get it on the ground by April this year – different destinations, but with people like Lleyton Hewitt and James Blake and [Marcos] Baghdatis. You have the top players like Federer and [Rafael] Nadal not playing. Andy Murray is not playing anymore. So, you can get some great players at certain events. I think there is still a market for it out there. We just need to get it off the grounds, which looks like it's going to happen this year. I just played in a new format where it's Team World against Team Australia. Australia had Pat Rafter, Mark Philippoussis, and Lleyton Hewitt. It was super fun. It's a great excuse to try to stay in shape.
Desert: It sounds like you haven’t lost your competitive edge.
Haas: Of course, you realize that at almost 47 now, you can't do certain things that you would like to do. I still actually play one or two team matches in Munich, Germany, for a really nice club with other former tennis players. Those are the type of matches I actually do have to practice, maybe a week before, just to try to get to a point where I feel like I can still do a few things the way I used to do them. I want to win matches, especially when it means something. I still like to get competitive, even if I play padel with friends. I think if you have events at a high level where you can still compete and you go up against, let's say, Lleyton Hewitt, and you say, "Well, I'm at this age now, but I think I can still beat him and he thinks he can still beat me," it's a fun combination. And then, when you have other colleagues out in your box and your team pushing you and maybe a few people coming out and watching at great venues, I mean, I think that's amazing.
