Wimbledon / Editor / 03 July 2009 / Leave a comment

It's taken as a given that if Andy Murray does reach the Wimbledon final he will face Roger Federer. But Ralph Ellis believes that we shouldn't be so sure...

Wimbledon is the only major tennis tournament all year that is still played on a grass court. Okay, I get little credit for stating the blindingly obvious, but it's still amazing how often people ignore that fact.

Every year you hear and read so-called experts discussing previous results between players when in reality what goes on the rest of the year bears little relationship to the very short season in England. Yes, of course the best players will be the best players on any surface. But when it gets to the big games at the end of it then the ability to deal with the different bounce of the ball, and the incredible speed it leaves the surface, becomes the defining factor.

All of that brings us to Tommy Haas, not surprisingly a long shot at odds of [10.0] to shock Wimbledon legend Roger Federer in tomorrow's semi-final. While everybody is getting excited about whether Andy Murray can be the first Brit since Fred Perry to reach a men's singles final, it's taken as a given that if he does get there Federer will be his opponent. Don't be so sure.

Haas has now put together an unbroken run of 10 victories on the surface and his fairly comfortable quarter-final win over world number four Novak Djokovic underlined the improvement the 31-year-old has made this year. Certainly Djokovic reckons Federer could very easily be dumped on his Haas.

"I think he has a good chance if he serves well," said the Serb after his defeat. "He's a very aggressive player and just needs to keep his consistency. I think he's a perfect player for this surface."

While Federer's Wimbledon record - and come to that his record everywhere else - is long and glorious, Haas himself has a fairly miserable history at SW19. But he's got his excuses.

"I always felt, deep down, that Wimbledon had something left for me," he told today's papers. "There's been a lot of bad luck before.

"When I was seeded three my parents were involved in a really bad motorcycle accident so I skipped a year. Then I stepped on a ball in the warm-up when I felt I had a decent draw. I've lost on three tie-breaks against Wayne Arthurs, and 9-7 in the fifth set to Marc Rosset. But whatever happens, happens for a reason, and I always felt there was something left for me on grass."

Could that be this year? Haas came within two games of knocking out Federer in the French Open and will be an even tougher prospect for the Swiss master on this surface. If you think backing the German for the win is too much of a longshot, then laying the [1.8] for Federer to triumph in straight sets looks sensational value.

Five things you might not know about Tommy Haas

1. Born in 1978 in Hamburg, when he was two years old he picked up a plank of wood and started hitting a ball against the wall at his home.

2. About that time his father Peter started taking him to the tennis club where he worked and the young Tommy spent all day with racquet and ball - at the age of five he won his first tournament.

3. At the age of 13 he moved to the Nick Bollettieri academy in Florida after being offered a free place.

4. Despite reaching number two in the world at one time, he's only ever won one Masters series tournament, in Stuttgart in 2001.

5. He was at the centre of a scandal when he was forced to miss the 2007 Davis Cup tie against Russia through a stomach virus and there were claims he'd been poisoned. The ITF ultimately ruled there was no evidence to support that.