Portal:Tennis/Selected biography
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Carlos Moyá Llompart (also referred to as Carlos Moyá; born August 27, 1976) is a right-handed Spanish professional tennis player, best known for having, for two weeks in 1999, been the world's top-ranked player; for won the 1998 Tournoi de Roland-Garros men's singles title; for having reached at least the semifinals of two other Grand Slam tournaments—the 1997 Australian and 1998 United States Opens—for having won at least one Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour event in eleven of the twelve seasons between 1995 and 2006, inclusive; for having won three ATP Masters Series titles; for having thrice qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup; and for having won six consecutive matches to help Spain to the 2003 Davis Cup title.
Presently a resident of Switzerland, Moyá was born in Palma de Mallorca on the island of Mallorca, flag pictured, in the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, and having begun playing tennis aged six years, enjoyed early success, becoming a professional in 1995 and, aged just 18 years, won, on the clay courts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, that season's ATP Buenos Aires title, defeating countrymate Felix Mantilla in straight sets to claim a championship he would win again in 2003 and 2006. Moyá reached three ATP Tour tournament finals in 1996, losing the BMW Open in Munich, Germany, to Czech Slava Dosedel, having defeated two players—Austrian Thomas Muster and Croat Goran Ivanišević—to reach the title tie; defeating Mantilla to win, in Umag, Croatia, the Croatian Open, a tournament he completed having won 62 games and having conceded just 24; and falling to countrymate Alberto Berasategui in the Bucharest Open in the eponymous city in Romania.
Moyá enjoyed a breakthrough year in 1997, reaching six tournament finals. Having reached the finals of the Sydney Outdoor in Sydney, Australia, before falling to Briton Tim Henman, Moyá, one week thence, defeated three players ranked in the world's top 20—German Boris Becker, Mantilla, and American Michael Chang—to reach the men's singles title match at the hardcourt Australian Open, ultimately losing to American Pete Sampras in three sets. Moyá would lose in the finals of tournaments in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (to Dosedel), and in Indianapolis, United States (to Swede Jonas Björkman) before reaching finally achieving a tournament victory, this at the Long Island Open, in which he defeated Australian Patrick Rafter, earning the number six overall world ranking. Moyá's performance at a clay court tournament in Bournemouth, England, one in which he lost a final to Mantilla having defeated Briton Greg Rusedski in the semifinals, moved him into the world's top five, which position he secured by advancing from round robin group play (defeating Sampras and Muster) in the 1997 ATP World Championships; Moyá lost a semifinal tie against Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov in two tiebreaks, finishing in equal third.
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