Haas Wins 500th, Joins Del Potro in Vienna QFs; Tsonga, Berdych Advance In Stockholm; Venus Alive In Luxembourg
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ATP veteran Tommy Haas collected his 500th career match win on Thursday after the oft-injured German cruised past American Jesse Levine 6-4, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals in Vienna.
The 34-year-old Haas in enjoying one of his better season following years of battling ailments. Haas joins Roger Federer (871), Rafael Nadal (583) and Lleyton Hewitt (566) as the only active players to reach 500, and for the achievement Tommy was given a Fiat 500 by the tournament director.
“I knew for a few days that I would reach the milestone if I won this match. This was a big goal of mine,” said Haas. “In April, I was at around 472 wins and I knew it wouldn’t be easy to win another 27 or 28 matches. It makes me really proud and for sure this is one of my biggest achievements after everything that happened. The fact that it happened here in Vienna makes it very special. Getting such a gift on top of it makes it an amazing day for me.”
Haas will play qualifier Grega Zemlja on Friday.
Also, making his fall debut Juan Martin Del Potro is into the quarterfinals tomorrow where he’ll meet Australian Marinko Matosevic. The Argentine needed three tiebreaks to win his second rounder over Daniel Brands, in a Wednesday match that featured both players hitting 30 aces, a record for a 3-set affair.
“If I knew this was going to happen before, I would have stayed at home for sure,” Del Potro said. “But I played a nice match for my first round after a month without competition. He served really well every moment of the match. I served really well too.”
In Stockholm, top seeds Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych continued their push toward the year-end London finals. Both reached the quarterfinals Thursday behind straight set wins. Tomorrow, Tsonga takes on Stakhosky while Berdych battles Youzhny.
Moscow has a combined event with the women’s field as the anchor. Sam Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic and Maria Kirilenko remain alive for the title. Stosur just won her 400th career match.
And playing her first event since the US Open, Venus Williams knocked out Mona Barthel 7-6, 6-4 in the second round of Luxembourg. The former No. 1 will face top seed Roberta Vinci in the quarterfinals Friday. Andrea Petkovic and Daniela Hantuchova also remain in the event.
This is the last week of the WTA’s regular season.
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