Carlos Moya is certainly showing why he moved into coaching. Fresh off guiding Milos Raonic through to his first semifinal at the Australian Open, Moya has gone on record with his thoughts about the Canadian’s progress. Not to exclude his old friends, Moya has also given his two cents on Rafael Nadal’s missed opportunity in Melbourne and his current coaching situation.
Raonic is Ready for Breakthrough
It took no time at all for Moya’s influence to have a big effect on the big serving Canadian. During his run in Melbourne, Raonic was returning better than he ever had and was showing previously unseen patience and consistency with his ground strokes. Most of the world is now expecting a major breakthrough for Raonic. Moya does too.
“At 25 it is a perfect time for Raonic to take steps ahead in his career. He is a great athlete. We try to work on his mobility and his game. Raonic's staff is very professional and so he is more introverted.”
Moya was asked to rate his partnership so far with Raonic. His response was that everything so far has been fantastic, saying, “10. He has so much potential and he is growing.”
Raonic, who reached a career high ranking of number four in the world last May, is in a great position to make a charge up the ATP World Tour rankings. Between now and Madrid, the only big result he has to defend is a semifinal run in Indian Wells. After Madrid, he has almost no points to defend for the remainder of the season.
Nadal’s Status
While he was playing on tour, Moya acted as a mentor for his fellow Majorcan Rafael Nadal. Moya was disappointed in Nadal’s result at the Australian Open, a first round loss to Fernando Verdasco. He said that he felt that Nadal had missed a great opportunity. According to Moya, had Nadal defeated Verdasco, “He would have had chances to go far in the Australian Open.”
In a bizarre twist of fate, Verdasco lost to Dudi Sela in round two, who then lost to Andrey Kuznetsov in round three, who then lost to Gael Monfils in the fourth round. Monfils would lose to Raonic in the quarterfinals. Raonic then lost to Andy Murray in the semifinals, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the final. Given the craziness on Nadal’s path, it is quite possible that Nadal would have gone deep in Melbourne, if not for the early upset.
There have been a lot of questions about how Nadal and his team should proceed after the loss, particularly about his coaching situation. Moya weighed in on that too, saying “I changed my coach some times, but Nadal is doing well with both Toni and Francis [Roig]. Nadal will come back to the top and will look to win Roland Garros. He is making changes and it takes time for this process.”