Agencies/Halle
Tommy Haas showed he was still capable of springing a surprise at the age of 34 when he ended a three-year title drought with a shock 7-6 6-4 win over Roger Federer in the Halle Open final yesterday. The German, who needed a wildcard to play in the event as he is now ranked 87th, had declared himself ‘mystified’ with his unexpected passage to the final. He was even more amazed yesterday after beating a 30-year-old opponent who was the overwhelming favourite to win a sixth title at the Wimbledon warm-up event. “This has been one of the best weeks of my career but I reckon I won’t really appreciate what’s happened until this evening,” Haas said after winning his 13th career trophy. “If someone had said to me beforehand that I was going to beat Roger Federer, probably the best player of all time, I would have thought they were mad.” Haas’s win also snapped a 10-year losing streak against Federer, with the Swiss having won their last nine meetings dating back to the 2002 Paris Masters. Haas last captured a title at the same grasscourt venue in 2009. Just weeks later he enjoyed his most successful run at Wimbledon when he reached the semi-finals and will be hoping yesterday’s result will also be a launchpad for another run deep into the tournament. Federer has already enjoyed a memorable week at the German town in North Rhine-Westphalia after the main pathway up to the tennis stadium was named after him. The 16-times grand slam champion is unlikely to be too concerned about failing to clear the final hurdle here as he would have fine-tuned his game for Wimbledon during the four matches he has played here. “I’m very impressed with how he played today. Tommy deserved to win,” said Federer, who had a been chasing his fifth title of the season and 75th overall. “I should never have lost the first set, so that hurt. He got momentum after that.” Meanwhile, Croatia’s Maric Cilic took the Queen’s Club title in controversial fashion yesterday as Argentina’s David Nalbandian was disqualified in the second set of the final for kicking an advertising board into a line judge. Nalbandian, who won the first set 7-6 (7/3), had just lost his serve to fall 4-3 down in the second set when he reacted with a frustrated kick at the board, which was just in front of line judge Andrew McDougall. McDougall rolled up his trouser leg to reveal a bloody gash and he appeared to remonstrate with Nalbandian. Play came to a halt and after a delay of several minutes, ATP supervisor Tom Barnes came onto the court to speak to umpire Fergus Murphy and Nalbandian. It soon emerged that the 30-year-old’s petulant behaviour had been punished with disqualification “due to unsportsmanike behaviour”. Chris Kermode tournament director, explained on BBC: “It’s one of those really unfortunate things. “It was an unbelievable final. Best match all week. Nalbandian ran across in frustration and kicked a panel which went flying across and caught a line judge. He’s quite seriously injured. A violation was called immediately... “Nalbandian clearly regrets what he’s done. It’s unfortunate. These things happen. “To have the match ending this way is disappointing, but we’re under the governance of ATP rules. “David feels terrible. It was a pure accident.”