Moya Breezes to Title Among Friends

Leave it to Pele to take a French Open tennis awards presentation at Court Central and turn it into a lively soccer demonstration.

There was the winner Carlos Moya of Spain heading the soccer ball back and forth with the Brazilian legend. Runner-up Alex Corretja was playing the ball off his foot, and finally cracked a free kick into the cheering crowd at the French Open on Sunday.

Perhaps that was the best indication that this year’s men’s singles final at Roland Garros seemed more like a warmup act to the World Cup, which begin Wednesday in France. The focus on soccer began as early as the second set of Moya’s 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 victory over his countryman Corretja in the All-Armada final.

Moya’s supporters from his birthplace, Majorca started singing soccer songs in Spanish, just before their local hero broke Corretja at 30 to take the second set on his way to his first Grand Slam title.

The third set seemed a mere formality. At 5-3, the 12th-seeded Moya served for the match and won it at love, completing the victory when Corretja netted a backhand service return.

Moya, 21, clenched his fists in jubilation, and tumbled to his back on the red clay. When he started to get up, it was none other than Corretja standing there, ready to embrace him. Corretja, seeded 14th, put aside his own disappointment and hopped over the net to congratulate his friend. “I just won a Grand Slam, so I cannot describe how happy I am,” Moya said. “I cannot explain with words. You have to feel it. You have to be there. The feelings I’m having right now are unbelievable.”

At the moment of victory, Moya was thinking about his family and friends. “All the people who helped me since I was a little kid, the people who trusted me in the bad moments,” he said. “This victory is for them.”

Corretja, who appeared in his first Grand Slam final, was his usual classy self and appeared to be the happiest finalist at Roland Garros. He seemed as thrilled as Moya. The mutual admiration continued when Moya journeyed up to the friends’ box and hugged his parents, as well as Corretja’s.

“I want to congratulate my friend Carlos,” Corretja said on the court during the awards ceremony, which included 82-year-old Don Budge, who won here 60 years ago. “Even if you won against me, I love you all the same. It’s very difficult for me to be here and not to win, but it doesn’t matter because I lost [to] a friend.”

Corretja walked into his postmatch press conference, applauded the media and said, “Let’s have a fiesta.” He will reach No. 9 in the world, and Moya moves to No. 5 when the new ATP rankings are released today.

In the final, Corretja’s best chance to climb back into it was in the second set, and after having lost it, he acknowledged his confidence disappeared too.

That set was really the only time Moya was seriously pressed in the 2-hour 18-minute match. His forehand briefly deserted him in the 10th game of the second set when he had two set points on Corretja’s serve and lost the game with three consecutive forehand errors.

The windy conditions, with gusts exceeding 30 mph, helped prevent the match from reaching a higher quality. “I started slowly because it was really windy,” Corretja said. “Even in the first game, I couldn’t find the place on the court. One ball went straight to the crowd, the other straight to the bottom of the net.”

Said Moya: “Usually I get crazy with the wind. But I was very focused today. I knew it was my chance to win a Grand Slam. So anything could happen today--snow, rain, storm, whatever--I was going to be really focused.”

Although the players say they blocked out their friendship, they showed enormous respect to one another on line calls.

“We didn’t need the chair umpire or the linesmen because every time we were giving [points] to each other,” Corretja said. “So next time, we’re just going to play by ourselves. We’re going to tell the chair umpire to go and call the score.

“It’s great. I just trust him. I never check the mark. He never checks the mark with me. Honestly, when I just finished, and I saw him that happy, I was feeling happy as well, because he’s my friend. That’s why I came to him and did what I did.”

Corretja and Moya, both big soccer fans, were excited at meeting Pele.

“We were asking him, ‘How [is] it possible that you were that good?’ ” Corretja said. “He was just laughing. He didn’t say anything. We wanted to know how he did it. It was like, ‘You are too good, you are too good.’ We were just trying to ask him.

“He never did say. Maybe he keep it [secret]. Maybe that’s why he was that good.”

On his soccer skills show during the trophy presentation, Corretja said: “Maybe I’m going to ask [Spanish national coach Javier] Clemente if he wants me for the team, because I see myself doing quite well with the ball.”

His future with the other sport with a ball isn’t looking too bad, either. Especially now that Moya is one step ahead of him in the Grand Slam department. Moya played in his first Grand Slam final in 1997, losing the Australian Open final to Pete Sampras.

“I don’t know if we are friends now,” said the 24-year-old Corretja, joking. “I’ve known him since six years ago. We’ve been practicing together a little bit. He’s younger than me.

“Jesus, he just won a Grand Slam already. I’ve got to push a little bit now.”