French Open Champion Carlos Moya announced his retirement from tennis in a press conference he held on Wednesday.
Moya, who has played the game for 15 years, cited his reasons as a persistently nagging foot injury, which is forcing him to retire from tennis at the age of 34.
With tears in his eyes, he told an emotionally charged audience that the National Masters, held in Seville at the end of the year are his last professional tennis appearance. Former players Albert Costa, Carlos Costa and Manolo Santana were part of this
press conference.
The Spaniard has said that although he sought several different medical opinions for his right foot injury, he has not found any solutions and the attempt to find one has been incredibly stressful for the player, who has few choices besides retirement. He
clearly regrets this anti-climactic conclusion to his fifteen years on the court, and said it was not the way he wanted to end his career.
He sustained the foot injury in April this year, although Moya has suffered from a series of injuries over the course of his career. The latest one was a fractured foot, which has kept him from regaining his form. He says he realised that it was high time
to call it quits after his last match at the Madrid Masters in May, when he lost in straight sets 6-0, 6-2 to Benjamin Becker. He said,
“I wanted to play the big tournaments and say goodbye but I got to the Madrid tournament and I still wasn’t 100 percent but motivation pushed me on. But I realized with that match that the moment had arrived.”
The player has had a remarkable career, with one of his major achievements undoubtedly being his 1998 French Open victory over compatriot Alex Corretja, whom he defeated in straight sets. He was also a finalist at the 1997 Australian Open, where he lost
to Pete Sampras. He was the first un-seeded finalist who managed to qualify for the Majors event in 16 years.
In the year 1999, Moya became World Number 1 for a brief period of time and was the first Spaniard to climb the rankings that high. He has amassed a total of 25 titles in his career. These trophies include the Monte Carlo Masters in 1998, the Cincinnati
Masters in 2002 and more recently, the Rome Masters in 2004. In the same year, he played a key role in leading his home country Spain to victory at the Davis Cup, where he defeated Andy Roddick of the United States of America in the event’s last match. He
won his last title in 2007 at Croatia.
Moya is an early training partner of current World Number 1, 24-year-old Rafael “Rafa” Nadal. Both players belong to the Spanish island, Mallorca. Moya seemed optimistic about his future plans, while a little nostalgic for his sport, saying,
“I’ll keep on with my gym in Mallorca. I have a sports business and I’ll dedicate more time to my wife, my daughter and my family. I’ll definitely miss tennis, however.”
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