Moya survives a night thriller


It was cold, late in the evening but Carlos Moya and Mariusz
Fyrstenberg made the athmosphere on a Sopot's court really hot. It
was efinitely the best and most exciting match of the tournament and
winner was not known till the last ball.

Polish qualifier Mariusz Fyrstenberg was known just from doubles some
far, in what he had some bigger successes with compatriot Marcin
Matkowski. But now he is trying to pay more attention and try himself
also in singles, which we see is going pretty well. After today's
match he said at first it was a little bit hard because the court was
too big, net too high but everything is to get used to.

Match started equally, for the whole first set players were going
hand in hand so it is not suprising it finished with a tiebreak. Moya
got one mini break and took the advantage first, leading 4-2 but
Fyrstenberg didn't got scared and not only made the score equal but
won it 7-5.

Second set was like everybody, besides Sopot's crowd, expected
dominated by Moya. Spaniard got an early break, Fyrstenberg maybe
felt a bit off and this way Moya kept the score with one break till
the end and won the set 6-3.

Emotions were the highest in the last, most dramatic set. When Moya
got break at the begining it seemed everything will go to one gate
from this time like in previous set but with a little bit fight and
luck Polish broke back to 2-2. It gave him huge mental power. In next
games he was hitting the ball like inspired, forcing usually atacking
Moya to deep defense. Two times it was 0-30 on Moya's serve but the
experience was helping to win the games at the end. At the same time
Fyrstenberg was winning his serve without problems. The longest game
of the match which lasted surely more than 15 minutes was deciding.
We saw many action s on highest tennis level, Fyrstenberg showed his
good tough at the net and played few balls which really deserved to
be admired. He defended two break point and had many advantages to go
up to 6-5. Moya was cool though and showed fabulous passing shots.
It finished with more famous player's win. Moya was serving for the
match, Fyrstenberg defended a match point and fought a break
point. 'Never hit drop shot at important moments', an old tennis rule
was true this time because Mariusz lost his last chance this way.
Moya won the match 6-7, 6-3, 7-5. And he can forget about some very
doubtful line calls against him...