Winning Davis Cup is the greatest feeling, says Moya

Mumbai, Sep 25 (UNI) Former world number one Carlos Moya of Spain today said a Davis Cup triumph was more important to him than a Grand Slam victory or being number one.

Moya, who has a present ranking of 43, was speaking to mediapersons after a practice session at the CCI courts here today.

The Spainiard is in Mumbai to participate in the 3,80,000 dollar Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open which gets underway later today.

Moya in reply to a question about top players missing Davis Cup action, said that it was not true. All the top players played the recently concluded matches over the weekend including Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and David Nalbadian.

''Davis Cup is the favourite tournament of the players as they play for their country and I can vouch for that,''he said, adding for me winning the Davis Cup two years back was the greatest feeling I ever had.

Speaking about the present tournament, Moya said he is taking it 'a step at a time' and is looking only at his first round match.

Moya, who recently completed 500 wins on the ATP tour, said that tennis had taught him a lot of lessons like respect for the game, respect for the people. ''It has also given me a chance to live and know different type of lifestyles. I have got so much out of the game, I hope I can give back something.'' Moya said that he was surprised at reaching the landmark of 500 wins. I never thought I would reach this landmark when I started, but now I feel that I can go on and reach 600 wins also, the 30-year-old said.

Moya speaking about the latest sensation to hit tennis his countryman Nadal, said that if Nadal stays in for a couple of years he is sure to win Wimbledon. At the moment however Federer is ahead of all the players, but Nadal definitely has it in him to beat the Swiss, he added.

Asked about his opinion about who is the greater player Federer or Sampras, Moya said at the moment going by statistics it is Sampras but in a couple of years time Federer could overtake the American.

However, he said it is difficult to compare players from two generations as they played at different times against different opponents.

Moya, however felt that the top 6 to 10 players in his era were all capable of beating each other. People like Sampras, Becker, Agassi, Rafter all had the skills to match each other, but however, now, there is a huge gap between the top two players in Federer and Nadal with the other top players.

Moya also gave the thumps up for the use of the TV umpire in tennis. If we can do it in more tournaments than it would be better for the game, the Spaniard added.

When asked about his toughest match, Moya first replied for a player who has played 800 matches in his career it is difficult to remember all, but the match against Alex Corretja in the final of the Masters Cup in 1998 when he lost 5-7 in the fifth would be up there as the toughest.

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