Carlos Alcaraz wins but loses drop-shot duel at Australian Open

Carlos Alcaraz defeated Corentin Moutet in straight sets at the Australian Open but admitted losing the drop-shot battle. Aryna Sabalenka survived a tough test against Anastasia Potapova, while Daniil Medvedev rallied from two sets down to beat Fabian Marozsan

Melbourne: Carlos Alcaraz acknowledged that while he won his third-round match, he lost the battle of the drop shots against Corentin Moutet.

That could be a first for the 22-year-old Spaniard, who grew up practicing drop shots and is now at the Australian Open chasing a career Grand Slam.

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The left-handed Moutet mixed things up for Alcaraz in a lively Friday atmosphere on Rod Laver Arena, using drop shots, slices, tweeners, half-volleys, angled volleys and even an underarm serve to keep the world No 1 on his toes.

The 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win over the No 32 seed looked convincing on paper, but the match was anything but routine.

“When you play someone like Corentin you don’t know what’s coming next,” Alcaraz said in his on-court TV interview. “I had so much fun on the court. As you could see, we both pulled off great shots, great points.”

Alcaraz laughed when he recalled his frustration near the end of the first set, when he was fed up with chasing drop shots and told his support team, “I’m not going to run to get those.”

“I was tired of going forward to the net,” he said, adding that he had looked at the stats and — with a mild exaggeration — thought, “I’ve been to the net 55 times? I thought we were in a drop-shot competition, but he won!”

There were tense moments, like in the second set when Alcaraz surrendered a 3-0 lead as the 26-year-old Frenchman went on a four-game roll.

Ever the showman, Alcaraz responded with some tricks of his own, including tweeners, which helped him stay composed.

In the first round, Moutet was booed by the crowd for his underarm serve on match point. This time, the Aussie crowd showed him much more love.

After winning a point near the end of the match with a perfect lob into the corner, Alcaraz celebrated with a fist pump. When he held serve with a winning volley, he marked it by doffing his cap.

Alcaraz will next play No 19 seed Tommy Paul, who advanced after Alejandro Davidovich Fokina retired injured following two 6-1 sets.

“We have great battles against each other,” Alcaraz said. “The matches are always at a high level.”

 

Sabalenka’s tough win

Aryna Sabalenka admitted there were times she felt her head, hands and racket were not connected, but she still had enough to squeeze past Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7).

The top-ranked Sabalenka, chasing her third Australian Open title in four years, led 6-5 and 40-0 in the opening set but Potapova saved all three set points to force a tiebreaker. Sabalenka led 3-0 in the breaker before Potapova leveled at 3-3.

Sabalenka held two more set points and clinched the set with a backhand down the line.

After trailing 4-0 in the second, Potapova rallied to 4-4 and again forced a tiebreaker. Potapova had three set points, but Sabalenka held firm under pressure.

“She played incredible tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I was always on the back foot. There are days where you just have to fight — it was a tough fight.”

Sabalenka won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024 and was runner-up a year ago to Madison Keys. She has also won the US Open twice.

Her fourth-round opponent will be Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko, who beat 14th seed Clara Tauson 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3.

“I never actually talked to her, never had a chance to hit or practice with her. I only saw her outside. I watched some matches,” Sabalenka said of Mboko. “She’s a great player, a fighter, playing aggressive tennis.”

 

Medvedev rallies again

Daniil Medvedev came back from two sets down to beat Fabian Marozsan 6-7 (5), 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 — the fifth time he has rallied from 0-2 to win a Grand Slam match.

“I was not calm after the first set because I was mad at myself for not doing better. It cost me in the second,” said Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion and three-time Australian Open runner-up. “In the third, I had to let it go and just think about what I needed to do.”

He did that, and now faces a rematch with Learner Tien, the American who upset him in a five-set second-round match here last year.

The 25th-seeded Tien advanced to the fourth round again with a 7-6 (9), 6-4, 6-2 win over Nuno Borges.