Birthday boy gets nice present
Moya advances with win at Open
NEW YORK - He wasn't the first to win on his birthday, not even the first at the US Open.
There have been far more dramatic celebrations, like the time in 2003 when Andy Roddick found himself embroiled in a stubborn second-rounder against the Czech Republic's Ivan Ljubicic when the clock struck midnight, signaling Roddick's 21st birthday. Never mind that it took Roddick more than three hours to subdue Ljubicic in four sets, but it would be a week and a half before the real celebration began. That's when Roddick captured his first and only major with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 win over Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The tennis world stopped still when, on his 39th birthday in 1991, Jimmy Connors gave the Flushing Meadows crowd the ultimate party favor in the form of a 3-6, 7-6 (10-8), 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), four-plus-hour, come-from-behind win over fellow American Aaron Krickstein.
And then there was Carlos Moya, who turned 32 yesterday, out on Court No. 7, against a 28-year-old Pakistani named Aisam--Ul-Haq Qureshi, who only got into the tournament as a Lucky Loser, which means he failed to qualify but someone with a higher ranking dropped out at the last minute. The 210th-ranked Qureshi, who hit an astounding 33 aces over four sets, still couldn't crash Moya's party and, with his buddies hooting, "Vamos, Carlito," the Spaniard prevailed, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.
"I don't mind playing anywhere," said Moya, who was the world's No. 1-ranked player in March 1999 and began this year No. 17 before falling to his current No. 42. "I know if I get far enough, I'll get to play in Ashe Stadium."
Last year, Moya was a quarterfinalist here but this year he's been plagued by a nagging hamstring pull. He's had plenty of memorable matches in his 13 years at the Open, including a five-set loss to American Todd Martin in 2000 that extended into the wee hours of the morning, at which point Martin invited the remaining fans to come down from the top seats and sit courtside to cheer him on to a 6-7 (3-7), 6-7 (7-9), 6-1, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 victory.
And while Moya has no plans to retire any time soon, he did acknowledge that he will not represent his country in the Davis Cup semifinal against the United States next month, leaving that honor to younger compatriots like his close friend and fellow Mallorcan, world No. 1 Rafael Nadal, and No. 4 David Ferrer.
"Davis Cup for me is over," said Moya, who last played for his country in 2004, when Spain won the Cup over the United States in Seville.
"The last memory I have of Davis Cup is lifting the trophy. There's no better way to quit the competition."
There were others with reason to celebrate yesterday and a few top players were scathed as the Open marched toward the third round.
The women's second seed, Jelena Jankovic, slip-slided her way to a three-set win over Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva both moved on easily, though the eighth seed, Vera Zvonereva, was upset by Ukrainian Tatiana Perebiynis, 6-3, 6-3. Lindsay Davenport failed to take advantage of a 5-3 lead in the first set and a 3-1 advantage in the second against 19-year-old Russian Alisa Kleybanova but still managed to eke out a 7-5, 6-3 win in 1 hour 31 minutes.
There were some bright spots for American men as Andy Roddick, Robby Ginepri, Robert Kendrick, and Sam Warburg joined third-seeded Novak Djokovic, fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, and Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round.
The eighth-seeded Roddick beat Fabrice Santoro, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. Ginepri defeated fellow American Amer Delic, 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), while Kendrick, a qualifier, upset Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in four sets. Warburg, a four-time All-American at Stanford, advanced when Serbia's Janko Tipsarovic retired after the first set with an ankle injury. Only the wild cards, former University of Florida standout Jesse Levine and USTA National 18s champion Austin Krajicek, failed to advance.
Ginepri reached the semifinals here in 2005 before losing a heartbreaking five-setter to Andre Agassi. In the second round, he faces 30th-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic, a five-set winner over another Frenchman, Julien Benneteau.
"The semifinals will always be a memorable moment for me," said the 61st-ranked Ginepri, who represented the United States at the Olympics but lost in the first round to Djokovic. "I've had a lot of great success here. I'm always excited to play in front of the fans. It's a lot of energy out there on every match that I play in and I feed off that quite well."
Moya, the elder statesman, has taken on a new role, of friend and pseudo-adviser to a Spaniard who is 10 years his junior.
"He knows how to handle himself quite well," Moya said of Nadal, with whom he frequently goes out to dinner in Spain. "He knows what he has to do and he's very good at keeping his feet on the ground. It has to do with the education you get when you're growing up, how your family treats you as a kid. In that way, we're very much the same."
With that, Moya headed out to a birthday dinner with some friends. "Not much to celebrate yet, but I'm optimistic." 