Spanish tennis ace Carlos Moya: Career at a glance
Born on August 27th, 1976, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Carlos Moya Llompart had his first taste of tennis at the age of six. Carlos advanced to the professional arena in 1995 and landed his initial tour triumph in the same year at Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1997, Moya booked his place in the first Grand Slam final of his career at the year’s Australian Open, where he eventually lost to Pete Sampras in straight sets. The Spaniard came into his own in 1998 when he took the French Open crown at Roland Garros after demolishing countryman Alex Corretja without losing a set. Moya also clinched that year’s Tennis Masters Series contest, marking a career first. He battled all the way to the U.S. Open semi-final showdown, only to be taken out by Mark Philippoussis. Moya became the world number one in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings in March 1999, after ending as the runners-up at the BNP Paribas Open. The Spaniard maintained that position for two weeks.
In 2000, Moya’s progress was hindered by fitness issues, but he was nevertheless able to maintain his position amongst the world top 50 players for the fifth year in a running. His most notable achievement for the injury marred year 2000 campaign was a victory at the Estoril Open. The following year, Moya took the Croatia Open ATP tennis trophy at Umag and also ended as runners-up at the Barcelona event, where he bowed down to fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero. In 2002, a rejuvenated Moya triumphed at four of the six finals events he managed to reach. He added another Tennis Masters Series trophy to his silverware cabinet and overcame world number one Lleyton Hewitt at the final showdown of the Cincinnati Open tournament to clinch the title.
In 2003, the Spaniard kept up his winning form and clinched three clay court trophies. Moya guided Spain to the Davis Cup final, where the nation ran afoul of the Australian defence. In the following year, the Spaniard made up for the loss after leading his country all the way to the Davis Cup triumph over the United States of America. Moya also landed his third Masters Series title at the 2004 Rome event, where he routed Argentinean David Nalbandian in the final. In January 2005, Moya took his 18th title of his career at the Chennai Open. After the match, he chose to hand the award money in charity to those affected in the previous year’s Indian Ocean earthquake. In 2007, the Spaniard fought his way to the Medibank International tournament in Australia, where he lost out to last year’s winner James Blake. Moya also made it to the semi-finals of the 2007 Hamburg Masters where he eventually fell to Roger Federer. In the same year, he took the Studena Croatia Open after decisively overcoming Andrei Pavel in the final. The Spaniard’s 2008 and 2009 seasons were less than smooth. His 2009 run was cut short by injuries and he decided to excuse himself from professional tennis for an unspecified tenure in March that year. Moya resumed his professional tennis duties in early 2010.
The Spanish sensation also made waves off the tennis court when in 1999, the U.S. People Magazine chose him as one of the publications “50 Most Beautiful People in the World.” Moya also undertakes numerous charity endeavours in the city of Mallorca. In 2005, he was heralded as the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year. The versatile Spaniard also enjoys golf and maintains a thriving friendship with fellow countryman and professional golfer Sergio Garcia. Moya is an avid supporter of the RCD Mallorca Spanish football club and is known to be a video game enthusiast. His interests extend to music compilations of U2, Bon Jovi, Queen and Spanish band Cafe’ Quijano, who frequently view Moya’s tennis stints live. Moya once joined the Quijano members on stage at one of their Barcelona gigs and entertained the audience with his best loved tune “La Lola.”
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