Haas, Tursunov in Tennis Final

The man named Haas is German through and through, even though he mostly lives in Florida and has a love affair with a certain West Coast fast-food chain that has a location no more than lobbing distance from UCLA.

Tommy Haas’ version of a double-double isn’t winning a singles match and a doubles match. It’s usually what he calls “a snack pretty much every day� from In-N-Out Burger. Post-match, that is.

“I usually have the double-double, no onions,� he reported. “Good stuff. It’s addictive.�

Now he’s on the verge of pulling off his own tennis version of the double-double at the Countrywide Classic. The sixth-seeded Haas moved to within one match of winning his second title at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center, defeating No. 7 Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-2, 7-5, in the semifinals on Saturday, hitting nine aces and never facing a break point.

In today’s final, he will play No. 8 Dmitry Tursunov of Russia. Tursunov defeated No. 3 Fernando Gonzalez in the night semifinal, 6-4, 6-2, in 64 minutes, his first victory against the Chilean in four matches, spoiling Gonzalez’s 26th birthday.

“Nobody beats me four times in a row!� Tursunov said. “It’s definitely good to get that monkey off my back.�

Tursunov has faced Haas twice, losing both. It will be the Russian’s first ATP Tour final.

Haas had to reverse some history against Hrbaty. Though he has defeated him seven times in 11 matches, Haas had not won against Hrbaty since 2002, losing their last three meetings.

“That was obviously in my mind,� Haas said. “I told him that after the match, ‘Finally I got you again.’�

Haas was nearly flawless when he got his first serve in, winning 10 of 10 first-serve points in the first set and 17 of 18 in the second. He has won two titles in 2006, and of his nine career titles, six have come in the United States, the most recent in February at Memphis, where he defeated Tursunov along the way.

“With Tursunov, you kind of never know what you’re going to get,� Haas said. “He can really blow you away from the court or can also be a little bit loose at times.�

Tursunov has attracted attention for his iconoclastic blog on the ATP website this year. Haas was one of the readers, and joked that the ATP didn’t “care about me blogging.�

“I heard he actually wrote everything himself on the blog, so that’s quite good writing, compared to some of the other people that have everybody else do it for them,� Haas said.

Haas could do well himself; he doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind. He went to a World Cup soccer game, watched Germany-Poland in person, and said: “I hate the Italians winning it.�

He said he could relate to the criticism the German team’s coach, Huntington Beach resident Juergen Klinsmann, faced for living in the U.S., since Haas went through it himself for living in Florida.

“Now they’ve finished third and everybody’s kissing his feet and almost going to build a statue for him or something in Germany,� Haas said. “I think it’s maybe bad luck for him because he could have maybe considered being the coach of the U.S. team. If he does that, then he won’t be able to come back.�