Sam Querrey’s Samurai offer Tommy Haas an apology

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There was a bit of a ruckus at last week’s L.A. Open men’s tennis tournament at UCLA when eventual winner Sam Querrey’s noisy group of fans who call themselves ‘the Samurai’ earned themselves some disdain from Germany’s Tommy Haas, the tournament’s No. 1-seeded player who was upset by Querrey in the semifinals. Haas contended the cheering group heckled him for errors and missed serves and suggested Querrey might want to rein in his band of rooters.

In an e-mail received today from thesamuraiguys, an apology was made to Haas, kind of.

‘First off, we would like to extend an apology to Tommy Haas for what he he believes was ‘inappropriate’ and ‘classless’ behavior.... Contrary to what Tommy Haas asserted, we were not cheering his errors and missed serves (our restraint is something we actually take pride in), but, simply applauding (yes, in a pretty boisterous fashion) the unbelievable effort from our former classmate and good friend, Sam Querrey. We understand that this line can easily be blurred in a competitive tennis match and therefore apologize to Haas for the confusion. To make up for it, we would like to follow in the steps of the White House, and offer to take Haas out for a beer (Beck’s of course) and reconcile our differences at the upcoming U.S. Open Championships.... Again, we are simply trying to direct some passion and spirit toward the great game of tennis that we all love.... The Samurai.’

If Querrey and Haas are drawn to play each other in an early-round U.S. Open match (well, it won’t be too early because both should be among the top 32 seeds), one might guess the meeting will be a night match and plenty of Beck’s will likely be consumed.

-- Diane Pucin