Haas survives Britton test

Fourth-seed advances after hard-fought match

By James Mason   Last updated: 10th February 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Haas survives Britton test

Haas: Tough opening match

His serve was working really well for him - not only really hard but with good placement and I could not get a good read on it.

Tommy Haas
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Fourth-seed Tommy Haas has advanced to the second round of the SAP Open in San Jose after the German defeated wild card entry Devin Britton 6-4 7-6 (7/3).

The 31-year-old produced a good performance in what was a tough opening match against the young American.

Britton, who was making only his third appearance in the main draw of an ATP event, dropped serve only once in the match and recorded 15 aces.

However the experience of Hass proved to be pivotal against the 18-year-old, with the world number 17 coming out on top in the second set tie-break 7-3.

And Haas praised the efforts of Britton, admitting he was surprised by the American.

Surprised

He said: "His serve was working really well for him - not only really hard but with good placement and I could not get a good read on it.

"Also serving and volleying on second serve and mixing it up, that really surprised me.

"I played good at the times I needed. The first match is always tough anyway because you never know how you're going to feel."

The victory has set up a second-round tie with Denis Istomin after the 23-year-old beat American Ryan Harrison 6-2 7-5.

Elsewhere in the tournament it has been a good start for the German players, with Philipp Kohlschreiber downing American Rajeev Ram 6-7 (7/9) 6-1 6-3 whilst Bjorn Phau defeated eighth-seeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3 6-1.

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