Carlos Moya

• Date of birth: August 27, 1976
• Birthplace: Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca
• Residence:  Geneva, Switzerland
• Height:  190 cm (6 ft 3 in)
• Weight:  86 kg (190 lb)
• Plays: Right-handed (double-handed backhand)
• Turned Pro:  1995

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Carlos Moyà Llompart (born August 27, 1976),  is a former world number one tennis player from Spain. He was French Open singles champion in 1998 and was singles finalist at the 1997 Australian Open. In 2004 he helped his country win the Davis Cup. He currently resides in Switzerland.

Personal life

Moyà was born in Palma de Mallorca. He began playing tennis at the age of six. He turned professional in 1995 and won his first tour title later that year in Buenos Aires. He dated Italian WTA player Flavia Pennetta but they broke up after Wimbledon 2007. He is currently dating actress Carolina Cerezuela from Spain.

Tennis career

In 1997, Moyà reached his first Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, where he lost in straight sets to Pete Sampras 2-6, 3-6, 3-6.

In 1998, Moyà won the French Open. He defeated fellow-Spaniard Álex Corretja in the final in straight sets 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. He also won his first Tennis Masters Series that year at Monte Carlo. He concluded the year by finishing runner-up at the ATP World Championships (now known as the Tennis Masters Cup), where he lost in a five-set final to Corretja 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 5-7.

In March 1999, after finishing runner-up at Indian Wells, Moyà reached the World No. 1 singles ranking. He held the top spot for two weeks. Later that year, he entered the French Open as defending champion, and lost in the fourth round to Andre Agassi (who would go on to be that year's champion). At the US Open, Moyà withdrew in the second round with a back injury and only played in two tournaments for the rest of the year.

In 2000, despite being hampered with a stress fracture in his lower back from the 1999 US Open through to the early part of 2000, Moyà still managed to finish in world Top 50 for the fifth straight year. He reached the fourth round of the US Open, where he held a match point in the fourth set but eventually lost to Todd Martin in an epic five-set marathon 7-6, 7-6, 1-6, 6-7, 2-6. Moyà's best result rest of 2000 was winning at Estoril.

In 2001, Moyà won the title at Umag. He also finished runner-up at Barcelona, where he lost in a four-hour, nine-minute marathon final to countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7.

2002 saw Moyà win four titles from six finals. He captured his second career Tennis Masters Series title, and the biggest hardcourt title of his career, at Cincinnati, where he defeated the then-number-1 Lleyton Hewitt in the final 7-5, 7-6.

Moyà captured three clay court titles in 2003. He also helped Spain reach the final of the Davis Cup, compiling a 6-0 singles record. In the semi-finals, he won the deciding rubber against Gastón Gaudio as Spain beat Argentina 3-2. He beat Mark Philippoussis on grass in the final. But that proved to be Spain's only point as they lost the final 1-3 to Australia.

In 2004, Moyà helped Spain go one better and win the Davis Cup. In the final, he won two critical singles rubbers against Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish, as Spain beat the United States 3-2. The year also saw Moyà capture his third career Masters Series title at Rome. He was the only player on the tour to win at least 20 matches on both clay courts and hardcourts that year.

In July 2004, Moyà's kind hearted gesture to hit with ballboy Sandeep Ponniah at the 2004 Tennis Masters Series Toronto event captured audiences during an injury timeout against opponent Nicholas Kiefer of Germany. To the crowd's surprise, Ponniah shuffled Moyà across the baseline and received an ovation for an overhead smash on a Moyà lob.

Moyà won his 18th career title in January 2005 at Chennai. He donated his prize money for the win to the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake victims.

In January 2007, Moyà made it to the finals in the Medibank International Australia, and was beaten narrowly by defending champion James Blake. Losing the first set, and down 0-4 in the second set, Moyà managed to come back and win the second. Blake proved victorious in the third and final set.

In May 2007, at the Hamburg Masters, he scored good quality wins against Mardy Fish, #12 Tomas Berdych, #9 James Blake, and #6 Novak ?okovi?, a run which saw him reach his first Masters semifinal since 2004 Indian Wells. After reaching the semi-finals against Roger Federer, Moyà lost, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6.

Moyà lost against Nadal in straight sets in the quarter final of the 2007 French Open.

During the Wimbledon Championships, Moyà lost to Tim Henman in a 5-set thriller, the fifth set stretching to 24 games (Henman won 13-11). Despite the loss, Moyà had no points to defend (he had not played a grass match in a few years), resulting in moving to #20, his first time inside the top 20 since June 13, 2005.

In July 2007 Moyà won the Studena Croatia Open in Umag, Croatia, defeating Andrei Pavel (6-4 6-2). The win brought him to #18 in the rankings, his highest rank since May 23, 2005, when he was #15.

In August 2007, Moyà lost to Marcos Baghdatis in the first round of the Montréal Masters. At Cincinnati, one week later and just two weeks shy of his 31st birthday, he beat David Nalbandian 7-6(4), 7-6(2), #3 Novak ?okovi? 6-4 6-1, and Juan Martin Del Potro 7-5 3-6 7-5 (after being down an early break in the 3rd set) to set up a quarterfinal clash with Lleyton Hewitt

 In 2008 at the Cincinnati Masters, Moyà defeated Davydenko 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-2 which began on Wednesday and was held over until the next day because of rain. Hours after his match with Davydenko, Moyà beat Igor Andreev 6-4, 7-6(2).

Grand Slam record

Australian Open :

• Singles finalist: 1997
• Singles quarter-finalist: 2001
• Doubles quarter-finalist: 2001

French Open :

• Singles champion: 1998
• Singles quarter-finalist: 2003, 2004, 2007

U.S. Open :

• Singles semi-finalist: 1998
• Singles quarter-finalist: 2007

source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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