Carlos Alcaraz wins match but loses drop-shot battle at Australian Open

Carlos Alcaraz acknowledged that while he won the 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 relentlessly practicing his drop shots and is now at the Australian Open chasing a career Grand Slam. The left-handed Moutet mixed things up for Alcaraz in an almost festival Friday vibe on Rod Laver Arena, his blend of drop shots, slice, tweeners, half-volleys, angled volleys and even an underarm serve keeping the world’s No. 1-ranked player on his toes.

The 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win over the number 32 seed appeared like a fairly convincing scoreline, but the match was anything but routine. “When you play someone like Corentin you don’t know what’s going to be 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 reflected on his surprise near the end of the first set, when he was fed up with tracking down drop shots and told his support team “I’m not going to run to get those.”

“I was tired to go forward to the net,” he said, adding that he’d 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 moments of tension, like in the second set when Alcaraz surrendered a 3-0 lead when the 26-year-old Frenchman went on a four-game roll.  Ever the showman himself, Alcaraz chimed in with some of his own tricks and tweeners. It helped him stay composed.

In the first round, Moutet was booed by the crowd for his underarm serve on match point. There was much more love from the Aussie crowd this time. After winning a point near the end of the match with a perfect, deep lob into the corner, he made an iconic fist pump celebration. When he held in that game with a winning volley, he marked it by doffing his cap. Alcaraz will next play Sunday against No. 19 Tommy Paul, who advanced when Alejandro Davidovich Fokina retired with an injury after dropping the first two sets 6-1, 6-1.

“We have a great battles against each other,” Alcaraz said. “The matches against each other are always a great level.”Sabalenka’s tough win Aryna Sabalenka said there were times she felt like her head, her hands and her racket were not connected but she still had just 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 send it to a tiebreaker. Sabalenka led 3-0 in the tiebreaker before Potapova leveled at 3-3.  (AP)

Sabalenka held two more set points and clinched the set when she laced a backhand down the line. After trailing 4-0 in the second, Potapova rallied to level it at 4-4 and then again force a tiebreaker. Potapova had three set points in the tiebreaker but Sabalenka rallied when the pressure was on. “She played incredible tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I was always on the back foot. There are days where you just have to fight - it was such a fight.”

Sabalenka won the Australian Open title in 2023 and 2024 and was the runner-up a year ago to Madison Keys. Sabalenka has also won the U.S. Open twice. Her fourth-round match will be against the rising star Victoria Mboko, who beat 14th-seeded Clara Tauson 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3.  “I never actually talked to her, never had chance to hit, to practice with her. I only seen her outside. I was watching some matches,” Sabalenka said of the teenage Canadian. “Yeah, she’s a great player. She’s a fighter. She’s playing really good, aggressive tennis.”

Tien-Medvedev revisited Daniil Medvedev rallied from two sets down for a 6-7 (5), 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 comeback win over Fabian Marozsan, the fifth time he’s 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,” Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion and three-time Australian Open runner-up, said. In the third, “I had to really let it go. Just think about what I need to do.”

He did that, and now he into a rematch with Learner Tien, the American who upset him in a second-round five-setter 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.