Melbourne, Australia — carlos alcaraz Admitted that although he won the third round match, he lost in the drop shot battle corentin moutet.
It could be a first for the 22-year-old Spaniard, who has grown up constantly practicing his drop shots and is now at the Australian Open chasing a career Grand Slam.
Left-handed Moutet mixed things up for Alcaraz in an almost festive atmosphere on Friday at Rod Laver Arena, his mix of drop shots, slices, tweeners, half-volleys, angled volleys and even an underarm serve kept the world No. 1-ranked player on his toes.
A 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 victory over the No. 32 player seemed like a pretty solid score line, but the match was anything but ordinary.
“When you play someone like Corentin you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Alcaraz said in his on-court TV interview. “I had a lot of fun on the court. As you could see, we both hit great shots. Great points.”
Alcaraz laughed when he reflected on his surprise at the end of the first set, when he got fed up with tracking drop shots and told his support team, “I’m not going to run to get them.”
“I was tired of going to the net,” he said, adding that he looked at the stats and – with mild exaggeration – thought “I’ve been to the net 55 times?”
“I thought we were in a drop-shot contest, but he won!”
There were moments of tension, such as in the second set when the 26-year-old Frenchman took a 3-0 lead and Alcaraz played a four-game set.
Alcaraz, once a showman himself, turned the tables with some of his tricks and tweeners. This helped him to remain composed.
Moutet was criticized by the crowd for his underarm serve on match point in the first round. This time got a lot of love from the Australian crowd.
After winning a point with an accurate, deep lob into the corner at the end of the match, he performed an iconic fist pump celebration.
When he clinched that game with the winning volley, he marked it by taking off his hat.
Alcaraz will play its next match on Sunday against No. 19 tommy paulwho moved forward when Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Retired due to injury after losing the first two sets 6–1, 6–1.
“We have a big fight against each other,” Alcaraz said. “The matches against each other are always of a great standard.”
In other matches of men’s category on Friday Daniil Medvedev After trailing by two sets, won 6-7 (5), 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3. Fabian MrozsonFor the fifth time, he has achieved a 0-2 lead to win a Grand Slam match.
“I was not calm after the first set because I was angry at myself for not performing better. It cost me in the second set,” said Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion and three-time Australian Open runner-up. In the third, “I really had to let it go. Just think about what I needed to do.”
He did it, and now he’s in the rematch learner tnThe American who upset him in a second-round five-setter here last year.
25th seed Tien again reached the fourth round with a 7-6 (9), 6-4, 6-2 win. Nuno Borges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
