Alcaraz survives 'drop-shot competition' against Moutet

Australian Open 2026

The world’s most effective shot-making showman couldn’t help but acknowledge the artistry from his opponent, Corentin Moutet, on Friday after subduing the Frenchman for his 15th Grand Slam fourth round berth at the Australian Open.

Both had the Rod Laver Arena crowd eating out of their hands before the world No.1 showed he meant business in a 6-2 6-4 6-1 victory.

“Well, I think to maintain the focus in a Grand Slam is always difficult, but I think when you are facing these kind of players, even more difficult,” Alcaraz said.

“When you don't know what's coming, he could do whatever he wants to do, so it's just tricky. You can go a little bit farther on the court, but then right away he makes a dropshot. If you go forward, he goes with topspin. So sometimes it's just tricky.

“But, you know, I'm just happy, because I just got the good focus all the time. When the things that didn't go to my side, just stayed there, and then trying to weigh my good moment again, my good rhythm, which I got in the second set.”

Moutet was looking to reach the fourth round at a Slam for just the third time and a boilover would have made him the first Frenchman since Arnaud Clement at US Open 2000 to beat the world No.1 at a major.

To do so he would need to beat a top-10 player at a Slam for the first time in eight attempts, but Alcaraz put paid to those plans despite losing bragging rights in the drop-shot stakes.

“At one point, at the end of the third set I told my team, I'm not gonna run for another drop shot,” Alcaraz said.

“To be honest, I was tired to go forward to the net. I was looking at the screen, I was like, ‘I've been going to the net like 55 times. Oh my God’. So yeah, it's been tricky. I thought we were in a drop-shot competition, but definitely he won.”

Those drop shots were a given from the outset and both engaged in a game of cat and mouse at net before Alcaraz attempted an around-the-net winner that would have given him a second set point.

Such was his unbridled confidence that at 5-1 up, he had the room for such an audacious attempt, to flex a little added flair.