Moya Molds a New Image From Clay

It hasn’t been an invasion so much as a slow mustering of the troops. Slowly, not so anyone would notice, Spain dispatched player after player into the swift and unpredictable world of hard courts, grass courts and indoor tennis.

After successful exploratory skirmishes, reinforcements were sent out, away from the comfort of clay. So many Spaniards were so successful that by the end of last year there were 14 Spanish men in the top 100, compared to 12 for the United States.

It marked the first time since the ranking system began in 1973 that any country had more highly ranked players than the U.S.

The Spanish women have been similarly successful but lack the depth of the men and the backing from the national tennis federation. Still, with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez, Spain has two players in the top five and six in the top 100.

By the beginning of this season, Spain had lost the element of surprise. The Australian Open was a transition from covert to overt operations for the Spanish men. Three Spaniards were in the quarterfinals, and 20-year-old Carlos Moya, unseeded and unregarded, made it to the final against Pete Sampras.

Moya will return to the hardcourts as the eighth-seeded player in the Newsweek Champions Cup, which begins Monday at the Hyatt Grand Champions.

Spaniards now know that only by mastering all surfaces can they be considered among the best in the world.

“I realized that to make [rankings] points and to make money, I had to be a good player on all surfaces,” Moya said. “We [Spanish players] all understand this, we don’t just want to be good players on clay. This is not so new, but it [has taken] one or two years.”

Moya’s was the breakthrough performance. His match against Sampras in the Australian Open was only the 19th hardcourt match of his career. It was the first time Moya had made it to the final of a Grand Slam tournament. He had never gone beyond the second round at a major.

Moya didn’t sneak into the final, he defeated two top 10 players: No. 6 Boris Becker and No. 2 Michael Chang. Even though he lost to Sampras in the final, his ranking rocketed from No. 25 to No. 9. Suddenly, Moya had achieved his season’s goals in the third week of the year.

Although unaccustomed to the spotlight Moya appeared unaffected. With his long hair and dark good looks, he was an instant favorite among Melbourne’s youth. He handled it well.

Asked at a packed news conference when he first realized the significance of his victory over Chang, Moya replied: “I think I did something big because now I have 200 journalists.”

Moya benefited from the lack of pressure felt by the underdog. His sensible on-court pep talks kept things simple. While serving for the match against Chang and on the verge of reaching the final, Moya told himself: “If you win this game, you are going to do a very big thing.”

Chang, an accomplished clay-court player, knows that a big thing in tennis has a shelf life that lasts no longer than the next tournament.

“It will be interesting to see how he goes in this upcoming hardcourt season,” Chang said. “That should be the test to see where his game is. Being in the top 10 will give him a bit of a different look at things. No longer is he the person who is the underdog, now he is the person expected to win.”

For the first time, Moya has included an American hardcourt swing into his spring schedule. He has played at Scottsdale, Ariz.--where he lost in the quarterfinals--and at Indian Wells. Next he will go to the Lipton Championships at Key Biscayne, Fla.

Moya has beaten Thomas Muster on clay, Becker indoors, and played well against Sampras on hardcourts. The victory over Becker, last year at the Paris indoor tournament, gave Moya confidence.

“That was more than a victory for me because at that moment I realized that I can beat anyone on any kind of surface,” he said.

Moya has been nurtured under a distinctive system of national coaching, a training center in Barcelona and a togetherness on the road that is unique to the Spanish players. As did the Swedish players in the 1980s, the Spanish players travel together and support each other.

It has always been so, according to Jose Higueras, who grew up in southern Spain.

“Except for a few individuals, in the last 30 years the Latin players hang together,” he said. “Much more than the American players seem to do. In my playing days, it was very rare that I didn’t go to dinner with a Spanish guy. I think it’s great that, with tennis as competitive as it is, they can still be friends.”

Unlike many other players on the tour, who socialize largely with members of their entourage but not other players, the Spanish players are their own small clique. After Moya beat Felix Mantilla at the Australian Open, they went out to dinner.

“Of course, I would eat with him,” Mantilla said. “We want to win, but after the match is over, we are still friends. Why should it be different?”

Said Moya: “When the others are playing, I go to watch them and to support them, that’s one of the keys. We all feel alone, so far from home. Maybe that’s why we are so many in the top 100--we don’t feel alone, we are all friends. We play cards, go to cinema, go to disco. We all have dinner together. We are friends.”

Higueras said the friendships are real, and have something to do with the culture of Spain.

“I just had breakfast with him and he seems like a normal kid, the same kid that he was three or four months ago, which is very refreshing,” Higueras said. “He knows what he has done and it doesn’t satisfy him. He’s ambitious.”

Added Moya: “I’m not going to change. This has changed my life, but it’s not going to change me.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Reigning in Spain

Last year marked the first year since the inception of the ranking system in 1973 that any country had more players in the top 100 than the United States.

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YEAR SPAIN USA 1987 3 26 1988 5 27 1989 6 27 1990 7 23 1991 8 17 1992 9 18 1993 10 17 1994 11 19 1995 12 14 1996 14 12

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NEWSWEEK CHAMPIONS CUP (Men)

* Site: Hyatt Grand Champions Resort, Indian Wells

* Dates: Monday through March 16

* Times: Day sessions 10 a.m.; evening 6:30 p.m.

* Top-seeded player: Pete Sampras.