Alcaraz only had his smile wiped off his face for a few minutes this Friday during his third round match. It was midway through the second … set. The Murcian comfortably controlled the scene against a daring Moutet. The Frenchman is an artist, a lover of the unpredictable, but not very competitive during the first hour of the game. With 3-0 and serve for Alcaraz in the second set, the blackout came. Smiles disappeared and problems emerged. Number one got stuck, which saw Moutet chain four consecutive games. Unthinkable seeing the evolution of the match from its beginning, always with Alcaraz in command until the disconnection came.
Tired of running forward to try to catch Moutet’s constant drop shots and with a sterile forehand this afternoon, Alcaraz had to look for other tools to get back into the match. He achieved it quickly, erasing his rival’s hopes of a comeback in a flash. Thus the smile returned to his face, after a competitive second set that alternated excitement with points of great beauty. It was the third game for Alcaraz, just as it had been the first.
Completely regardless of the result of the match, he never tired of putting on the Moutet show: two consecutive spoon serves, celebrations in style with the score clearly against him, etc… The Frenchman always jumps onto the court with the intention of having a good time and on this occasion it was no different. In a packed Rod Laver Arena, against world number one, it was an ideal occasion to showcase the entire catalog of brilliant shots. It so happened that today he had another racket artist, which helped make the show complete, at times more similar to an exhibition match than a third round of a Grand Slam.
Alcaraz closed the show without problems to embrace his 87th victory in his first 100 Grand Slam matches. Only Björn Borg, with 88, achieved more wins than the Murcian with that same number of games played. The El Palmar tennis player needed a comfortable match like this to gain confidence after facing two annoying rivals in Melbourne. Piedra Dura will face El Palmar this Sunday, whose rival in the round of 16 will be a Tommy Paul who only needed to win two simple sets before Davidovich Fokina from Malaga retired.
Alcaraz leads the head-to-head with Paul by five wins to two, with the last four achieved consecutively. They had never before faced each other on hard court in a Grand Slam, but they did in Masters 1000 tournaments, with a tie of two wins for each. If the duel with Moutet has been fun, the one between Alcaraz and Paul this Sunday will be no less fun, with the competitive component much more even than in the third round with the Frenchman.
»It is a great challenge to play against Carlos. He can do anything on the court. He has the level that everyone is trying to reach now. But I have to face it with enthusiasm, be prepared to measure up, ready to give my best level believing in myself,” acknowledged Tommy Paul when asked in the press room by Carlos Alcaraz, his next rival.
