He yells at himself in the middle of a match, upsets the public or takes out his frustration on the referees: the French Corentin Moutet (69th in the world), opposed on Saturday to the American hope Learner Tien (121st) in the 3rd round of the Australian Open , willingly thrives on adversity.
Opposed in the first round to Australian number 2 Alexei Popyrin (24th) on the John Cain Arena, one of the main courts in Melbourne, Moutet did not expect to obtain the favor of the public, despite the noisy little colony of French supporters at Melbourne.
Whatever. “It’s a good way to challenge yourself, to see what you have inside yourself. It forces me to be courageous, to go for my matches (…),” he said. he argued in a press conference after his 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
Sometimes, he doesn't even need a hostile audience to ignite, like this spoon serve sent into the net while he was leading 3-0 in the third set against a Popyrin weakened by pain to the buttocks.
An unorthodox throw-in and hardly appreciated by the “Aussie” public, who perceived the gesture as a lack of respect towards their champion, and therefore began to belch at each point scored by Popyrin. Moutet responded with a mocking smile.
“At Roland-Garros, the public is often behind me. It’s not a lack of fair play, it’s normal, it’s like that every time you play in your country,” he said. put into perspective after the match.
– “I lacked humility” –
Moutet is used to it. In March 2024, during the ATP 250 in Santiago, he drove the Chilean public crazy during his victory against local darling Nicolas Jarry. His first point? An ace… served with a spoon.
But against Popyrin, this joke that he is accustomed to could have taken him out of his match. Broken by an Australian on the verge of giving up a few minutes earlier, he finally managed to tighten the game and win the set and then the match.
-A shift in concentration, without prejudice, that he also experienced in the 2nd round against the American Mitchell Krueger (146th). While he had three balls in the 3rd set at 5-2, he was broken twice before finally winning the set in the tie-break.
“I lacked a little humility to finish the set. It could have been a trap. He got back into it. I could have had a better attitude on this game, been more humble. That's the lesson to remember from this set”, he admitted afterwards.
“It’s something we don’t often talk about, but concentrating throughout a match is not easy. We see it with the best players in the world who have quite impressive concentration,” he added. .
“I think he’s going to foil even more than one,” says French No.1 Ugo Humbert, who saw Moutet’s match against Popyrin.
“He has such an atypical game, such an atypical personality, I am not surprised to see him at this level,” develops Messin, qualified on Friday for the round of 16 in Melbourne.
Faced with Learner Tien (19 years old), faller in the 2nd round of the triple finalist in Melbourne Daniil Medvedev (5th) and the youngest American to reach the 3rd round of the Australian Open since Pete Sampras, any mistake could however be fatal.
However, the stakes are high: in the event of qualification for the round of 16, the 25-year-old Frenchman would equal his best Grand Slam performance, achieved at Roland-Garros (2024) and the US Open (2022).
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