Moya revisits his best with opening Indian Wells win (Roundup)

By Bill Scott Mar 12, 2010, 2:28 GMT

Indian Wells, California - 1999 finalist Carlos Moya rolled back the years as he began the Indian Wells Masters with a 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-5) win over American Tim Smyczek Thursday.

The Spaniard took over the ATP-number-one ranking 11 years ago thanks to a semi-final victory against Gustavo Kuerten in the desert.

Moya is playing the event for the first time since 2008 after undergoing shoulder surgery and coming through a difficult rehab process.

'I'm hitting the ball well and training well,' said the Spaniard, soon to be a father. 'But I can see I'm having trouble closing out matches.

'That's not something you can practise for. My goal now is to try and play as many matches as possible. In the first set I had so many chances. I made it very difficult to win.

'I still have good memories of this tournament. But that's like most of the places on the Tour,' said Moya, who spent three weeks at the top ranking spot in 1999.

As seeds waited to start at the mega men's and women's event, two Frenchmen advanced into the second round, with Jeremy Chardy defeating Italy's Potito Starace 6-1, 4-1, retired and Florent Serra putting Colombian Alejandro Falla 6-1, 6-2.

Andy Murray, seeded third and losing finalist a year ago to Rafael Nadal, reacted to the British Davis Cup disappointment of last weekend, when the Wimbledon host nation lost 3-2 to lowly Lithuania without his services.

The recent Australian Open finalist against Roger Federer has taken himself out of Davis consideration this season to concentrate on his ATP singles game.

Second seed Novak Djokovic was still elated by Serbia's Davis Cup World Group defeat four days ago of the 32-times champion US in Belgrade, propelling the Serbs into the quarter-finals for the firs time.

'This was the biggest Serbia success in history,' said the world number two. 'Beating the team which has won it the most makes this success even bigger.

'It's been a long couple of weeks for me,' said the winner of the Dubai title 11 days ago. 'But I was able to take confidence from that and deal with the Davis Cup expectations.

'Playing a Davis Cup tie is like playing five or six matches in a regular tournament. But the satisfaction is worth it - what more could you ask for?'

But the desperate tone of reports from the Lithuania disaster filtered through all the way to the Californian desert, where Murray and his team followed the weekend tie on the internet.

'It's hugely disappointing to lose,' said Murray. 'British tennis is at a low point. But I'm fed up with reading only negativity and constant bickering.'

Murray stands 12-4 at Indian Wells and will open play against the winner from wild card Robby Ginepri and Italian Andreas Seppi.

In the women's first round, Croatian Karolina Sprem beat Shenay Perry of the US 6-2. 4-6, 6-3.

American qualifier Sloane Stephens recovered for the hosts with her defeat of Czech Lucie Hradecka 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (9-7) to set up a meeting with holder Vera Zvonareva of Russia.

Italian Roberta Vinci staged a comeback over teenaged US Open quarter-finalist Melanie Oudin 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.