Ecstatic Haas reaches 'elite eight' at last

London: Tommy Haas reached the "elite eight club" at Wimbledon for the first time in his long career on Monday and the 31-year-old German was as surprised as anyone at just how easy he made it look.

Haas, who won his first title on grass at Halle two weeks ago, made it through to the quarter-finals for the first time - 12 years on from his debut at the All England Club - by beating the Russian Igor Andreev 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Next up is fourth seed Novak Djokovic and given that the Serb was the man Haas beat to win in Halle, the German, now blessedly free from injury, should be in with a chance of extending his grasscourt season still further.

"If you'd told me maybe even two months ago that I was gonna get to the quarters of Wimbledon, playing at this level now, I'm not sure I would have believed it," Haas told reporters after a textbook performance on grass.

"This is so far a fantastic run no matter what happens from here on out. I'm really happy and pleased to make it to the 'elite eight club', or whatever you call it here. So that's really nice."

AGGRESSIVE APPROACH

The performance against Andreev, based on aggressive returning and near faultless work at the net, was a reminder of the quality that once took Haas up to the number two ranking in the world.

Full Coverage: Wimbledon 2009

It also raised the old question of how much Haas might have achieved had a series of injuries, most seriously to his shoulders, not kept him out for such long periods.

The German, who came close to upsetting Rodger Federer in the French Open this year, took the first set 10-8 against Andreev on the tiebreak and then gave a demonstration of how to play on grass.

He chipped and charged Andreev's second serve ruthlessly in game four of the second to engineer the break, sealing it with a whipped forehand down the line after an ill-advised attempted drop from the Russian.

Haas kept Andreev at arm's length in the third set, too, winning his first service points easily and putting Andreev under increasing pressure until he got the one break he needed.