Meet German ex-tennis pro Tommy Haas, recently embroiled in break-up rumours
He worked with the coach who trained Serena Williams and Andre Agassi – but what’s going on with his relationship with actress Sara Foster?
“My parents tell me that when I was two and a half, I played in my room with a wooden plank and a tennis ball,” he recounted on his personal website. “When [my dad] entered my room, he took the ball and threw it to me. I played it back straight into his hands. He repeated this a few times and could not believe what I was doing.”
It was this early display of agility and coordination that hinted at Haas’ later success on the courts. However, it was sibling rivalry that truly drove him to practise relentlessly at a young age. Haas enjoyed a successful ATP Tour career from 1996 to 2017, retiring in 2018.
Off the court, though, Haas has been facing some troubled times lately: last month, various reports surfaced about his supposed split from his partner of over a decade, Sara Foster.
Here’s what you need to know about Tommy Haas.
Tommy Haas’ early life
Tommy Haas was born on April 3, 1978, in Hamburg, Germany, to Brigitte Haas and former European judo champion Peter Haas. His family’s involvement in sports perhaps contributed to his own early athletic career beginnings.
When Tommy and his older sister, Sabine, were young, their dad was working as a tennis coach, so they spent countless hours at the tennis club, per Tommy’s website. Soon enough, Tommy was given his own racquet, with his father occasionally allowing the siblings to join in on his training sessions.
Young Tommy’s determination to surpass his older sister on the court pushed him to train hard – and his efforts soon paid off. By the age of five, he had unexpectedly won a youth tournament in his hometown, and by the age of eight, he did it again at a youth tournament in Munich, after flying for the first time.