Carlos crushes Ferrero in Cincinnati

Moya: a return to confidence and winning

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM CINCINNATI – They were all here at the Tennis Masters Series: the top players who are all capable of taking charge at hard court tournaments.

But down to the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters semifinals, only world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, a natural hard court kind of guy, who works his return-of-serve magic and fleet of foot style, remained in the field. Gone was Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick, Marat Safin and Tim Henman.
All that was left was Hewitt, the remarkably talented Chilean Fernando Gonzalez who can power his way past any opponent and two Spanish dirt-ballers – ’98 Roland Garros champ Carlos Moya and ’02 French Open finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero.

In the battle between the two Spanish amigos, there turned out to be a few surprises. One surprise was that after trailing Ferrero 5-1 in career meetings, losing their last five encounters dating back to ’99 Barcelona, the 25-year-old Moya landed on the winning side of the decision with a 6-4, 6-3 semifinal victory. Courtesy of the win, Moya will be contesting for his second career title on hardcourts against either Hewitt or Gonzalez, having won the Long Island tournament way back in 1997.

The other surprise was the actual brevity of the match.

BETCHA THE SEMI GOES LONG
If readers are unaware, journalists often tend to be cynics. Therefore, the notion that two Spanish clay courters could play a match against each other in a quick 68-minutes would be deemed all but impossible. The outcome of that belief was that a number of the steady sportswriters that cover tennis decided on a friendly bet – that translates to cheap as in a $1 per person – and prior to the match guessed how long the semifinal proceeding would take on Saturday afternoon. Most of the bets were in the two-hour range and the winner was off by 37-minutes, guessing one hour, 45 minutes, a wager that received many a cockeyed look.

But Moya is playing excellent tennis this week and has yet to drop a set in five matches played.

“I think it was my turn to beat him,” Moya said, smiling. “He beat me so many times, so I feel like it was now or never, you know? I had the feeling that today was gonna be my day. I was very confident and I think I played a great match. Today I deserved to win.”

Hearing Moya, who became the first Spaniard ever to ascend to the top of the ATP rankings for a blink-of-the- eye two weeks in March 1999, claiming confidence is a phenomenon that only returned for the former French Open champ this year. After achieving the highest level of the game, Moya was hit by a bad bout with his back that affected his entire 2000 season. The road back only started to brighten during the summer of 2001, but it was this season that he has won three of his career 10 titles, all on clay.

“I remember now how much confidence I had when I was No. 1,” Moya said. “Obviously, you have to have a lot of confidence. [Back then] I was feeling that even when I was not playing perfect, I was winning matches. And now, I am feeling that I’m playing very well and I’m winning those matches. So now my game is there.

“I always have to do something, not to fall injured again,” Moya said. “I’m doing special treatment, like getting a massage every day even if it doesn’t bother me at all. I have to, you know, to not have problems again. But now I can say I am healthy 100 percent.”

FRIENDS WHEN NOT FOES

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

While the American players don’t seem to bond with each other to the point past pleasantries, the Spaniards are a close-knit group.

Taking this fact into account, it was not surprising that Moya and Ferrero gave little thought to the fact that on Saturday afternoon they would be opponents in the semifinals when arranging to dine together on Friday evening. Hitting Carraba’s, an Italian chain restaurant, the two did not focus on the match ahead, but rather their passion for four-wheeled machines that can go very fast.

“We talk a little bit about cars when we’re together,” revealed Moya, who says he doesn’t have as many or as impressive a car collection as Ferrero. “We love cars and the speed, you know. But we didn’t talk about the match.”

PREDICTS CURRENT TREND WILL HOLD
According to Moya, we can expect to see the current trend of a lot of different players winning prestigious tournaments to stick. Thus far, this season, we have three different Grand Slam champions in three Grand Slams played – Thomas Johansson at the Australian Open, Albert Costa at Roland Garros and Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon.

“I think it’s going to be like this a few more years, I guess,” Moya said. “Maybe the last two, three years, only Hewitt has been there really all the time. And the other guys, I don’t think they are very consistent.”

Moya believes this is the case because there are simply more players with better capabilities.

“I think the difference is that before those guys [Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi] were getting to the quarters very easy. I think it happen what is happening in the women’s game. I mean, you could predict who were going to be in the semifinals, quarterfinals even, and they were not having very tough matches at every round. I would say the No. 100 player is a much better player now than No. 100 ten years ago.”

Moya credits the fact that tennis has become a sport for the masses for the difference in the game today.

“I think these days, in any small country, you can play tennis,” Moya said. “Maybe before – 10 years, 15 years ago – only the elite, only the high-class people could play tennis.’