Moya: "We're Taking It Match By Match"

Following his pupil closely, Carlos Moya arrived at The O2 on Saturday to practise with the Canadian ahead of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

The World No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, who withdrew ahead of the semi-finals of last week’s BNP Paribas Masters due to a leg injury, is looking at his options to arrive best-prepared for his first match in London. He opens on Sunday against Gael Monfils.

“It’s okay,” Moya said to ATPWorldTour.com after a practice session with the Canadian. “Yesterday was the third day he practised after the injury. It started very slowly. On Thursday he had a more intense training. We are making progress, but we know that we have limited time. The progression has been good.”

The former World No. 1 is aware that Raonic faces a different situation in this tournament from 2014, when he made his debut at the season finale.

“Now he expects to be here and is fighting for No. 3,” added Moya. “The goal at the beginning of the season was to qualify for London, but once the season progressed and he achieved so many good results, we raised the bar. He proved to himself that there are ways to go far. If he is in good physical condition, he will be one of the players to watch this week, that is for sure.”

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Moya, finalist at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in 1998 (l. to Corretja), when the event was held in Hanover, Germany, knows the difficulty involved in the tournament. Raonic is making his second appearance, having fallen in the group stage in 2014.

“They are the eight best players. You cannot expect to have an easy opponent. There are two newcomers and maybe they will struggle a little, although Monfils is a very experienced player. Thiem has not had the consistency as he did in early 2016, but that is normal. It sounds like a cliché, but we take the tournament match by match.

“I was expecting a season like this. I’ve had a lot of faith in him and I thought he was a player who’s not very far from reaching his full potential. This year, he’s been very consistent, except for the stretch from September to October, but that is normal too. Right now, he is No. 4 in the world and very close (65 points) to Stan Wawrinka for No. 3. That shows you how strong he’s been and the good year he’s had. Right now he is playing great tennis, as he’s demonstrated in Paris. Hopefully he will hold up physically and everything will go well.”

Raonic opens against Monfils in the night session on Sunday, with the match starting not before 8:00pm local time. He trails the Frenchman 3-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head, but has claimed two of their three encounters this year.