Tommy Haas bid an emotional farewell to Halle fans.
Last week, Haas toppled 18-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer in a Stuttgart stunner becoming the oldest ATP quarterfinalist since a 42-year-old Jimmy Connors made the last eight at the 1995 Halle.
More: Federer Earns 1,100th Career Win
Today, Haas played his final Halle match falling to Bernard Tomic, 6-4, 6-4, in the opening round.
The 39-year-old German waved to fans then scooped up daughter Valentina for an extended embrace.
"(It's) very emotional, very emotional obviously," Haas said. "You never know quite how to prepare for your last match in an event, especially an event that is very close to you and where you’ve had great success and really enjoyed coming back to every year."
The two-time Halle champion, who now serves as Indian Wells tournament director, confirmed this will be his final season playing on the ATP Tour.
"Obviously, I'm not that satisfied with the way I played today," Haas said. "Unfortunately, my body wasn’t that good the last few days in order to give it a real good go. Also a tricky opponent.
"So I’m not that satisfied with the way I played, especially in front of the Halle crowd. But that’s how it goes sometimes. But happy enough to have made the effort to go out there and give it a go which wasn’t easy and, you know, I’m very very satisfied with the ending here."
As the world No. 302, Haas became the lowest-ranked man to defeat Federer since countryman Bjorn Phau, then ranked No. 407, at the 1999 Washington, DC event. Haas also joined Novak Djokovic and Lleyton Hewitt as the only players with two grass-court wins over Federer.
Though recurring shoulder pain limited Haas to stretches of sub-100 mph serving in Stuttgart last week, the man who has undergone nine surgeries said today he'd like to play upcoming European tournaments if his body cooperates.
The former world No. 2 believes there is "a good chance" of receiving a Wimbledon wild card.
"I really don’t know because my body right now is doing a lot of things sometimes that I have no control over even though I’m trying as hard as I can to be as fit as I can," Haas said. "I’m looking forward to the tournaments where the tournament directors or organizations are still looking forward to having me, which is great and that includes obviously Bastad, Hamburg, Kitzbühel, next I’m hoping for a wild card in Wimbledon which I think I have a good chance at.
"And then after that we’ll see. I don’t know, if the body holds up I’d love to play the US Open again, possibly Vienna one more time but that’s all really a question."
Photo credit: Gerry Weber Open Facebook