That wasn’t the result that a hungry Federer was looking for in Stuttgart.

The Swiss Maestro was eager to get back to competitions, but he fell immediately in the opener at the hands of his good friend Tommy Haas.

Roger impressed with an amazing start of the match when he broke Tommy in the very first game before winning the opener 6-2 in style. Things looked amazingly good for the world no.5 that was also one break up in the second set, but later the Swiss had to bow after a long tiebreak after he had a match point. In the third set, Roger’s self-belief went south while Tommy looked much more confident. Roger was broken in the 5^th game, and he wasn’t unable to break the German after he had numerous opportunities.

Eventually, Haas won the match 2-6 7-6 (8) 6-4 even if Roger won 9 points more than him! The Swiss also converted only 3 break points out of 12 while Tommy converted 2 of 3.

Saving the match point was key. HAAS

In the post-match press conference, Tommy Haas commented

“It’s always special to play a close friend like Roger on grass, always lots of emotion. I saved a match point so was able to play more freely after that. I even shocked myself.”

That wasn’t cool for Roger.