Marathon man Haas wants Wimbledon changes
LONDON - German veteran Tommy Haas demanded Wimbledon install floodlights and introduce final set tiebreakers after winning a marathon five-set third round clash over Marin Cilic on Saturday.
The 31-year-old German beat 11th seeded Croatian 7-5, 7-5, 1-6, 6-7 (3/7), 10-8 in a four and a half hour tie which had started on Friday afternoon but had been held over for bad light.
“I don’t know why they don’t have lights here. I have never stopped a match a 6-6 before in the final set. It’s tough to come back but I’m happy to get through,” said Haas.
“I think they should be like the US Open and have a tie-break in the final set. I could hardly get out of bed today, but the adrenaline took over.”
Haas, who won the Halle grasscourt tournament on the eve of Wimbledon, will now face Russian 29th seed Igor Andreev who saw off Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-1, 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-6 (7/5) in another match held over.
Haas did have two match points in the third set tie-break on Friday before 20-year-old Cilic had two match points of his own in the 12th game of the decider before play was halted.
