Tommy Haas with Coach Christian Groh & Friends — Cincinnati Day 1, Practice Pics
Tommy Haas recently told Tracy Austin and Brett Haber at Tennis Channel that he often trains 6-8 hours a day to keep his 35-year-old body in peak condition. That hard work was in evidence at the Cincinnati Open, as he warmed up and worked out on the court with his coach Christian Groh.
They began with some stretching exercises at the side of the court, assisted by their, erm, slave boy, let’s call him. And yes, that’s Denis Istomin in the background. In fact, it seemed Denis was always in the background, since he booked roughly 12 practice sessions per day. We’re not sure if he ever actually left the court all week.
But we digress. The tension exercises then led to some of this…
…which turned into this…
…and perhaps we really shouldn’t even be talking about this…
As you can imagine, the crowd started snickering a bit while all of this was going on. It’s one of those moments where you are amused, but also feeling sympathy for the guys. After all, this is the job they have to do, and it can’t be easy doing your workout in a fish bowl. Most of us don’t even like exercising in front of a mirror, never mind in front of dozens, or hundreds of slobbery fans.
After his exercises, Tommy began his practice session on the court. In order to break the awkwardness of having just watched a guy with his arse up in the air for ten minutes, a couple young men in the crowd yelled out “HELLO TOMMY!” He smiled, seemingly amused, and politely said hello back.
If you click the above pic, you can see that Juan Monaco and his buddy are less amused. They may be giving me the stink eye because they realized they’d been caught on film doing the same thing the rest of us were…waiting to see if Tommy would take his shirt off. This is pure conjecture, of course, but to be safe, don’t tell Rafa.
Tommy practiced some volleys up at net, as Marco Baghdatis sauntered off the court.
Watch that ball…and there’s Mikhail Youzhny behind it…
A nice close-up of Tommy. Don’t look now, but I think that’s “Boris” behind him, whom you may remember from Wimbledon…
I think the celebrity guest star sightings are over. Let’s focus on how Tommy looks so enthused on returns…
He often even seems to be smiling as he hits the ball…
Let’s look at everyone’s favorite shot, Tommy’s one-handed backhand…
And yes, that is Monaco, still lurking in the background…
Tommy Haas and his coach definitely have some of the best bone structure on tour. As for the tennis, Christian has an interesting style…
Sometimes he takes on a bit of a marionette pose…
Here’s Tommy’s forehand for comparison…
On tippy-toes…
Oh, and Coach Christian also has a one-handed backhand…
Here’s Tommy’s again for comparison…
One more thing about Tommy’s coach…he has great abs.
Tommy takes a rest…has a chat with his team…
Tommy and Christian really do seem to have a great synchronicity about them…
Tommy sits down for a break before round two–the more intense part of his practice. We’ll do a whole ‘nother post for that one, and it will be all shirtless Tommy, all the time.
Tommy is smiling because he’s realizing Monaco left too early, and missed him playing shirtless. Or something like that.
You might also enjoy: VLiNG Sales Skyrocket Thanks To Shirtless Tommy Haas
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PHOTOS: c2013 Valerie David for TennisInsideOut.com
