Haas struck down with swine flu

(GETTY IMAGES)

Leading German tennis player Tommy Haas has had to pull out of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors tennis tournament in Basle after contracting swine flu.

The 31-year-old consulted his doctor when he contracted flu-like symptoms, and he was diagnosed with the highly-contagious H1N1 strain.

"I did a test because I suspected I had the swine flu and the test was positive," he told the Bild newspaper.

"It was obviously a shock for me."

Nevertheless, the German, who reached this year's Wimbledon semi-finals, is not too worried about the illness, even if it means his season is practically over.

"I am quite relaxed because I know that swine flu is a particularly strong form of flu, but when you are in a good physical condition like I am, then you can quickly beat it off," he added.

Haas had to pull out of the last ATP event in Stockholm after detecting the flu-like symptoms and he is unlikely to be fit to appear in Paris next week.

"It was really bad for three days and I couldn't leave my hotel room," he revealed. "I felt really bad."