STUTTGART, Germany — Tommy Haas lined up a second-round meeting with Roger Federer, while seeded players Gilles Simon and Viktor Troicki both made an early exit from the Stuttgart Open on Tuesday.
The 39-year-old Haas, playing for the last time at the grass-court tournament, defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in their first-round match. The victory set up another clash with the Swiss great, who has already won 15 titles on grass and is playing again after a 10-week break.
“I’m really looking forward to playing the next game against one of my closest friends,” Haas said. “We had many great battles in the past. He is the best player on grass in history. I’ll definitely need to play better to have a chance. But you never know what can happen.”
Feliciano Lopez of Spain upset the seventh-seeded Simon 6-3, 6-3, while Benoit Paire of France beat the eighth-seeded Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-4.
German qualifiers Peter Gojowczyk and Yannick Hanfmann both advanced, as did fellow countryman Philipp Kohlschreiber, who was leading 6-1 when Marcos Baghdatis retired.
Another German, Florian Mayer, later lost 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (1) to Jeremy Chardy of France, who next plays Lopez.
Jerzy Janowicz of Poland defeated Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, and Bernard Tomic prevailed over Stephane Robert of France, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.
The top four seeded players – Federer, Grigor Dimitrov, Tomas Berdych and Lucas Pouille – received byes to the second round.
This is the third year the event is being played on grass.
