Tommy Haas remembers when his first-round opponent, wild-card Devin Britton, was a ballboy. Then he watched him develop into a professional player.

Now he's playing against him.

Haas needed a tiebreaker to beat Britton 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the first round of the SAP Open on Tuesday.

"His serve was working really well for him; not only really hard but with good placement and I could not get a good read on it," said Haas of Germany. "Also serving and volleying on second serve and mixing it up, that really surprised me. I played good at the times I needed. The first match is always tough anyway because you never know how you're going to feel."

Haas remembered Britton as a youth and was on hand for his first professional match against Roger Federer at the U.S. Open.

"He played a pretty good game then," Haas said. "It's hard to remember a ball boy because you met so many, and then having him turn pro is something special. That doesn't happen very often."

Britton, who played in his third career main draw singles match on the ATP tour, became the youngest player to win the NCAA championship last May as a freshman at Mississippi.

"Some guys aren't ready to turn pro right away," said Britton, who was once a ballboy for Haas. "For me, it was a great experience and I was able to mature a little bit. I had a lot of fun."

Bjorn Phau of Germany beat No. 8 Jeremy Chardy of France 6-3, 6-1.

American Michael Russell, who played in his first professional tournament two years ago when he was 15, beat lucky loser Kyu Tae Im of Korea 7-6 (8), 6-1. Continued...