Farewell, Charly

It's been a long time coming... and to tell the truth I thought it had happened already. But it's still a thing.

Carlos Moya has retired. Farewell, Charly.

Ah, Carlos Moya. The love rat of the ATP tour. The Yoda to a once upon a time young Padawan Rafael Nadal. The dude that thought it would be awesome to cheat on Flavia Pennetta (seriously, Carlos?) The dude that was one of the ATP pin ups and who was actually more surprisingly successful than you might think.

One of the first ATP matches I ever remember really watching featured Carlos Moya. It was at the Australian Open in 2001, it went five sets, and Moya beat Hewitt. I didn't know enough about tennis at that stage not to automatically go for the Australian, so I was cheering against Moya, but damn, that was an entertaining match. I will never forget it.

Moya was around so long that I think a lot of us have actually forgotten how incredibly successful he was in the late 90s. He was a multiple Slam finalist and he was also a Slam winner (Roland Garros '98, I do believe) and he was ranked #1 in the world. He was up there with the best of his generation - the Kuertens and Rafters and Agassis and Samprases of the world - and he came off pretty all right, when it all comes down to it.

He obviously continued a lot longer than those guys (maybe Agassi is comparable, but in general). Was this a good idea? I'd say he probably could have gone a little sooner. But let's not forget that it's only been a couple of years since Moya was beating his protege Nadal. And that is no mean feat.

Also, thanks for retiring so I had something to write about today.