	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

U.S. OPEN

September 6, 2007

Carlos Moya

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You ran into a player at this stage who right now is being talked about as one of the top up-and-coming players. He's talked about his aspiration to become part of that conversation of Nadal, Federer. Do you think he's that caliber of player who has that potential?
CARLOS MOYA: Yeah, I think if there's one player who can be compared to Rafa and Roger it's him.
He's been playing very solid almost every week, so playing three semifinals in the same year in a Grand Slams is not easy. Still he has a chance to get even further here.
But, well, he's won two Masters Series on hard. I think he's already there. He can still improve, but he has a lot of potential to be No. 1 in the world.

Q. You went very far this in this tournament. There's a lot of fan support out there for you. It's been nine years since you went this far, I think. How did it feel to you to be out there tonight with that type of atmosphere?
CARLOS MOYA: Well, it was great. I think I was very well prepared for this match, but things didn't go the way I thought. To be honest, I expected to play better than I did. I had few chances in the first set, a few more in the second set, but it happened that he played his best when I had those chances.
But I didn't feel comfortable today on the court. Maybe it's because of him, because he's playing very well. Very complete. He puts a lot of pressure on my serve with his return. He served very well.
I'll be disappointed that I lost today, but I have to realize that it was a very wonderful week. I had great feelings, and tonight it will take a while to forget for me, because what happened to me these ten days was amazing from the crowd. I got a lot of great support from them.
It was a great feeling at this stage of my career to have such a good support from the crowd, being so far away from home.

Q. Did he step it up in the third set or do you think that maybe after losing the tiebreak you lost your edge a little bit there, your confidence?
CARLOS MOYA: I guess both. I think I was beat down mentally. Having the chance to be set-all would have been much different I guess. Being two sets down, I guess that he is not as tight maybe as he was and he played much better and I played a bit worse.
I think a little bit of both.

Q. What makes him so tough to play? What does he do that well?
CARLOS MOYA: Well, I think he does everything. He has very a good serve, great return. He can attack the ball. He defends very well. I would say the best is when he has to raise his game, he does. When he's in a difficult situation is when he's playing his best. That only happens when you're a big champion, and I think he's going to be.

Q. If you were his coach and he was playing Federer in the finals on Sunday, what would you tell him to do?
CARLOS MOYA: Well, I don't really know. I don't know. To be honest, I think Federer is also a great champion and he has nothing to prove, and it's not easy to beat him in the final.
Still Djokovic has a very tough match the next round against Ferrer.

Q. This has been a very good tournament for Spanish players. What are your thoughts about how well you've done as a group, and particularly Ferrer advancing.
CARLOS MOYA: Well, I think he's had an unbelievable run here. He deserves every single win that he had. He's a very good fighter and probably this is going to help him to believe more in himself. I think all of us know that he's a great player, but maybe he's the only one that doesn't know that because he's the way he is.
You know, he's with his feet on the ground, he's very easy going very nice guy. So I'm very happy for him and that he's in the semifinal and that he has a chance, to me, to be in the final.
So, you know, the other Spaniards, I think we are playing year after year better and better. We had four players in the last 16 I think, and two in the quarters. So I think it's a pretty good result.
We realize that to be a top player, you have to play well everywhere I guess. So that's what we've been working on. I think it's paying off.

Q. You beat him a few weeks ago in Cincinnati. What was the difference between those two matches and why the outcome was different today?
CARLOS MOYA: Well, the difference is that he was coming from that week, that famous week in Montreal, beating the top three players in the world, and he's just twenty years old. It happens what happened to him normally. So the courts were different, the balls were different, everything was different.
It's not easy after such a great week to keep playing at the same level. So I knew that and I took advantage of that. I think I played a great match, but still he wasn't playing that well. Today I guess it was more his level, his real level.

Q. He sometimes will bounce the ball quite a lot before hitting a serve. Is that something you even notice? Is it annoying or distracting?
CARLOS MOYA: Well, it's annoying because you know a huge serve is coming. When he's bouncing so many times he's making all the first serves. So that's the annoying part.
If he does that and he misses that's okay. He can do that as much times as he wants. The bad thing for the opponent is he's putting first serve in and pretty hard.

Q. Did you happen to see the imitations that he did after the match?
CARLOS MOYA: Yeah, a little bit.

Q. Are you amused? I mean, we were.
CARLOS MOYA: Yeah, it's funny. I mean, he does it very well.

Q. Has he ever done you?
CARLOS MOYA: I never saw him, no. But for sure he can do it very well. That's a gift and he does it very well. So if he doesn't succeed in tennis, maybe he has a good career in that. (Laughter).
I guess he's pretty successful in tennis though.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297