2 Responses to chennai08nadal_moya

1. Voo de Mar says:

   January 3, 2025 at 5:07 pm

   What’s quite peculiar about this match is not only the extended duration, also the fact Moya had won 17 (!) straight matches when a deciding 3rd set tie-break was required. He began his amazing streak with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(7) win over Calleri in Vienna ’02. Moya had had a solid 16:12 record at the time counting all levels (prior to Vienna), and shifted to 33:13 following the Nadal loss. Moya finished his career with a 35-14 record (33-10 considering main-level only, incomparably the best in the Open Era).

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   January 3, 2025 at 4:21 pm

   Points won by each set: | 41-45, 46-42, 53-47 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   21 % Nadal – 26 of 121
   22 % Moya – 35 of 153

   Two Mallorcans [2 vs 17 ranking-wise] with long hair and sleeveless Nike T-shirts, future and former Nos. 1 in the world, and the best “2-1” match of the season already in the first days of a new year (January 5th, 2008). It lasted almost four hours, the previous record of the longest “2-1” match was overcome (or equalled) by a minute (Cherkasov d. Gaudenzi 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 in Tel Aviv ’93 after 3 hours 54 minutes). Each set could have gone either way:
   1st set: in a no-break set, Nadal had two set points leading 5:4* before losing the tie-break 3/7
   2nd set: Nadal led 4:2* (40/30) before winning the tie-break 10/8 in which he trailed 0:4, *3:6 and 6:7…
   here how he saved thise match points:
   – BH winner on 7th stroke
   – Moya’s FH error
   – Moya’s BH volley error
   – another BH volley error, on 16th stroke
   Moya was never considered a volley specialist, but his technique couldn’t be questioned, thus he should have won the match on his third match point; the ball wasn’t super easy, but from similar positions he used to win 8 out of 10 points, I assume
   3rd set: Nadal trailed *2:4 (deuce), Moya led 5:3* (15/0) after a long game in which he committed two double faults showing first signs of tiredness, nonetheless he led 5:4 (30/15) when another double fault haunted him… there was ‘deuce’ when Nadal’s curved forehand winner caught the intersection of the baseline and side-line (the ball was clearly inside the court) so a few centimetres separated the 10-year-older Mallorcan from another match point… in the deciding 39th game of the contest, he was exhausted and casual errors gave Nadal the 7/1 tie-break – he celebrated on his knees
   In the aftermath of this epic, Nadal was unable to play his normal tennis the following day against Youzhny who had won his semifinal without any troubles. In 2009 Nadal repeated a titanic semifinal in Madrid, and again he was a shadow of himself in the final. Moya, in his long career, experienced similarly crazy match at the Olympics in Athens 2004 as he defeated Enqvist 7-6(7), 6-7(8), 9-7 after 2 hours 59 minutes. Moya saved a set point in the opener (the Swede improved from 1:6 to 7:6 in the tie-break) and three match points in the decider on serve [4:5, 15/40 and 6:7 (30/40)] while Enqvist fought off two match points in the 2nd set.

   Serve & volley: Nadal 1/3, Moya 0

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