In November 1995, at the age of 19, Moyá won his first tournament at the top-level inBuenos Aires, defeatingFélix Mantilla in the final. In May 1996, Moyá defeated the clay-court championThomas Muster, in the semifinals of the tournament inMunich, ending Muster's streak of winning 38 matches in a row on clay-courts. It was the fourth time in four weeks that Moyá had played a match against Muster. In the final ofMunich,Sláva Doseděl defeated Moyá.
In 1997, Moyá reached his firstGrand Slam final at the Australian Open, defeatingdefending championBoris Becker in the first round,[2]Jonas Björkman in the fourth round,[2] and world No. 3Michael Chang in the semifinals, in straight sets,[2] before losing in straight sets toPete Sampras. Before the US Open, he won brilliantly in Long Island. His opponent in the final was the future winner ofUS Open a few days later, the AustralianPatrick Rafter. Moyá lost due to an injury in the first round of the US Open.
In March 1999, after finishing runner-up atIndian Wells, Moyá reached the world No. 1 singles ranking, the firstSpanish player in history to achieve this feat. He held the top spot for two weeks. Later that year, he entered the French Open as defending champion and lost in the fourth round to eventual winnerAndre Agassi.[4] At the US Open, Moyá withdrew in the second round with a back injury and only played in two tournaments for the rest of the year.
Despite being hampered with a stress fracture in his lower back from the 1999 US Open through the early part of 2000, Moyá still finished in the top 50 in the world for the fifth straight year. He reached the fourth round of the 2000 US Open, where he held a match point in the fourth set, but eventually lost toTodd Martin in five sets.[5] Moyá's best result for the rest of 2000 was winning at thePortugal Open final over his countrymanFrancisco Clavet.
In 2001, Moyá won the title atUmag. He also finished runner-up atBarcelona, where he lost in a four-hour marathon final to countrymanJuan Carlos Ferrero.
2002 saw Moyá win four titles from six finals. He captured his second career Tennis Masters Series title, and the biggest hard-court title of his career, atCincinnati, where he defeated world No. 1,Lleyton Hewitt, in the final.
Moyá captured three clay-court titles in 2003. He also helped Spain reach the final of theDavis Cup, compiling a 6–0 singles record. In the semifinals, he won the deciding rubber againstGastón Gaudio as Spain beatArgentina, 3–2. He beatMark Philippoussis on grass in the final. But that proved to be Spain's only point, as they lost the final 1–4 to Australia.
In 2004, Moyá helped Spain go one better and win the Davis Cup. In the final, he won two critical singles rubbers againstAndy Roddick andMardy Fish, as Spain beat the United States 3–2. The year also saw Moyà capture his third career Masters Series title atRome, where he defeatedDavid Nalbandian in the final. He was the only player on the tour to win at least 20 matches on both clay courts and hardcourts that year.
In July 2004, Moyá's kind-hearted gesture to hit withball boy Sandeep Ponniah at the 2004 Tennis Masters Series Toronto event captured audiences during an injury timeout against opponentNicolas Kiefer of Germany. To the crowd's surprise, Ponniah shuffled Moyá across the baseline and received an ovation for an overhead smash on a Moyá lob.
In May 2007, at the Hamburg Masters, he defeatedMardy Fish, world No. 12Tomáš Berdych, world No. 9 Blake, and world No. 6Novak Djokovic, a run which saw him reach his first Masters semifinal since 2004 Indian Wells, where he lost toRoger Federer.
DuringWimbledon, Moyá lost in the first round toTim Henman in a five-set thriller, the fifth set stretching to 24 games (Henman won 13–11). Despite the loss, Moyá had no points to defend (he had not played a grass-court match in a few years), resulting in his moving to world No. 20, his first time inside the top 20 since 13 June 2005.
In July 2007, Moyá won theCroatia Open inUmag, defeatingAndrei Pavel. The win brought him to world No. 18 in the rankings, his highest rank since 23 May 2005, when he was world No. 15. In 2007 at Cincinnati, he reached the quarter-finals, where he lost toLleyton Hewitt.
In 2008 at the Cincinnati Masters, Moyá defeatedNikolay Davydenko, the match being played over the course of two days because of rain. Hours after his match with Davydenko, Moyá beatIgor Andreev.
Moyá made a slow start in 2009. He failed to progress beyond the second round of his first four tournaments, including a first-round loss at the Australian Open. In March 2009, he announced that he would have an indefinite hiatus from tennis to recover from injuredtendons andischium in hiship.[6] He returned to professional tennis in January 2010, losing againstJanko Tipsarević in the first round of the Chennai Open, then losing in the first round of the2010 Australian Open toIllya Marchenko.
On 17 November 2010, he announced his retirement from tennis owing to a long-standing foot injury from which he failed to recover.[7] He received a special ceremony at the O2 Arena in London during the 2010ATP World Tour Finals, with all top eight singles and doubles players attending. Other players who attended includedFernando Verdasco,Mikhail Youzhny,Àlex Corretja,Jonas Björkman, andThomas Johansson.
He has won ATP Tour singles titles in eleven countries: Argentina, Croatia, France, Italy, India, Mexico, Monaco, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United States.
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.