Carlos Alcaraz marches on! Straight-set triumph over Moutet keeps perfect Aussie Open run alive

Carlos Alcaraz takes an easy triumph at the Australian Open against the Frenchman Corentin Moutet by 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 and continues his perfect campaign so far without conceding sets and leaving a high level of tennis to reach the second week in Melbourne.

The World No. 1 maintains his chances of fighting for the title and reached the fourth round for the third consecutive year. A tough rival like Moutet was expected, characteristic for his unpredictable game, but he was overwhelmed by the consistency and skill of the 6-time Grand Slam champion.

Alcaraz guaranteed a difficult fourth-round duel: the World No. 20 Tommy Paul, with whom he has several previous encounters and who has already complicated things for him a couple of times. The Spaniard dominates the H2H by 5-2, although when it comes to hard courts they are tied (2-2).

It was difficult to predict what could happen in Alcaraz’s first match against Moutet, considering the particular game of the Frenchman, who alternates dropshots and slices more than usual for Tour players, and who, in addition, with his particular character, makes it unpredictable for any opponent to follow his patterns of play.

However, Alcaraz came prepared for the challenge and quickly took the lead with an early break. At first, Moutet seemed to have difficulties keeping up with Alcaraz’s rhythm, but little by little he began to adjust to the match, finding some greater consistency in his service—which in the first set barely reached 56% of points won with the first serve and 33% with the second.

There were two breaks for Alcaraz, who won 67% of service points and took the first set 6-2 in only 36 minutes. Moutet had left some good points, giving several dropshots to Alcaraz and forcing him to come to the net, although it was not enough to put Carlitos’ service games at risk.

The second set maintained Alcaraz’s dominance at the start, and in a few minutes he took a double break to lead 3-0. Perhaps the wide lead made Alcaraz slightly drop his momentum, and Moutet knew how to take advantage of his opportunities in the following minutes. The Frenchman returned to the match with two consecutive breaks back—and a total of four games in a row—in particularly erratic moments for Alcaraz.

The score reached 4-3 in favor of the Frenchman, when Alcaraz managed his reaction. With good first serves, he easily held his service games, and only needed one new break opportunity to take the set 6-4.

Things already looked bad for Moutet, who started the third set with difficulties. In arguably the most disputed game of the match, Alcaraz wasted up to three break points, but ended up taking the lead on his fourth chance, which ultimately became the final blow for Moutet, who could not recover mentally from the wide disadvantage.

Alcaraz won up to four games in a row—with two consecutive breaks—and advanced to an almost unassailable 4-0 in the third set. At this point, not even two hours of play had passed, and Alcaraz was only two games away from closing the triumph.

Moutet did not oppose much resistance at the end, and it was enough for Alcaraz to have one new break opportunity so that the 22-year-old player could take his eighth break of the match and close the triumph by 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 after two hours and seven minutes. Alcaraz had 71% first serve and won 73% of them, although he was not too effective in some important points, and conceded his service in 2/4 opportunities his rival had.

In the fourth round, he will face a well-known player like Tommy Paul, an American who is back on the scene after finishing early in 2025 due to injury and spending a few months away from competition. So far, Paul has not conceded sets and took advantage in the third round of the retirement of Alejandro Davidovich Fokina due to injury in the third set to reach the second week of the Happy Slam.