Moya Fired Up For ATP Champions Tour Debut In Bogota

Former World Number One Carlos Moya has spoken of his excitement at joining the ATP Champions Tour on the eve of the Seguros Bolivar Tennis Champions in Bogota.

A day before the tournament gets underway on Thursday, the 1998 French Open Champion explained how the ATP Champions Tour is the perfect path for him to take after retiring from the professional circuit in 2010.

“I’m really happy to be here because I’ve been wanting to play on this Tour for a long time,” he said. “I love playing tennis and never wanted to stop playing so this is the perfect opportunity for me. Even though this isn’t the main ATP Tour it’s something I’m really looking forward to because the standard of tennis is still really good and I know it’s going to be good fun.”

The Spaniard is also looking forward to taking on a field of so many of his contemporaries.

“I’ve had so many battles in so many big tournaments with all of the guys who are here in Bogota this week,” he said. “I have so many memories with all of them and I miss having the battles that we used to have. My best years were in the late 90’s and early 2000’s so it’s an amazing feeling to be able to play against other players that were in their peak then, like Thomas Muster and Yevgeny Kafelnikov.”

Moya, Kafelnikov and South African Airways Rankings leader Mark Philippoussis were all in attendance for the launch of the event on Wednesday. Philippoussis, who has won the first two tournaments of the year on the ATP Champions Tour, is drawn in Group A for the tournament’s round robin stage alongside defending Champion Enqvist, Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui and Colombian wildcard Mauricio Hadad.

Group A sees debutant Moya face off against fellow Roland Garros Champions Muster and Kafelnikov as well as Bogota native Mario Rincon.

Matches are played over the best of three sets, with a Champions’ Tie-break (first to 10 points with a clear advantage of two) to decide the winner. After all round-robin matches are complete, the top two players in each group will meet in Sunday’s final.

To view the round-robin groups and the order of play for the week in Bogota, go to results.

After Bogota, The ATP Champions Tour continues its South American swing in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the Grand Champions Brazil (May 26-29) where Enqvist is also the defending the Champion.