Alcaraz wins third round match but loses ‘small ball battle’ at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — Carlos Alcaraz admits that while he won his third-round match, he lost his lob battle with Corentin Mutai.

It could be a first for the 22-year-old Spaniard, who has practiced lobs relentlessly since childhood and is now chasing a career Grand Slam at the Australian Open.

The southpaw Moutei brought an almost festival-like atmosphere to Alcaraz on Friday on Rod Laver Arena, mixing lobs, slices, middle volleys, half-volleys, angled volleys and even underarm serves to keep the world’s No. 1 player on his toes.

The 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 victory over the No. 32 seed looked convincing, but the game was anything but routine.

“When you play a player like Corentin, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Alcaraz said in an on-court television interview. “I had a lot of fun out there. As you can see, we all made good shots. The scoring was high.”

Alcaraz laughed when he recalled his surprise toward the end of the first set, when he tired of tracking dropped balls and told his support team “I’m not going to run and get those balls.”

“I’m tired of going to the net,” he said. “I thought we were having a lob contest, but he won!”

Of course, there were some tense moments, such as in the second set when Alcaraz led 3-0 and was held back by the 26-year-old Frenchman in four straight games.

Alcaraz is a showman himself, chiming in with some tricks and in-between tricks of his own throughout the three matches. This helped him stay calm.

In the first round, Mutai’s underarm serve on match point was booed by the audience. When he made his main event debut, he received even more love from the Australian crowd.

Near the end of the game, he scored a point with a perfect deep lob into the corner, then performed his signature fist-pumping celebration.

When he hit a game-winning volley to win the game, he took off his hat in celebration.

Alcaraz will face No. 19 Tommy Paul on Sunday, who advanced after Alejandro Davidovich Fokina retired due to injury after losing 6-1, 6-1 in the first two sets.

Sabalenka, Coco Gauff advance

No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Coco Gauff have a tough route in the third round.

Sabalenka said there were times when she felt like her head, hands and racket weren’t connecting, but she still had enough to beat Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7).

Gauff overcame early trouble against Hailey Baptiste to advance 3-6, 6-0-6-3, cutting down on unforced errors and not making any double faults in the second set.

Sabalenka, who is chasing her third Australian Open title in four years, led 6-5, 40-0 in the first set, but Potapova saved all three set points to send the match to a tie-break. Sabalenka led 3-0 in the decider, but Potapova tied the score at 3-3.

Sabalenka saved two more set points and sealed the victory with a backhand serve.

Potapova broke serve twice in the second game to tie the score at 4-4, and then forced the tie into a decider again. Potapova held three set points in the tiebreak, but Sabalenka fought back when the pressure came.

“She played incredible tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I was always at a disadvantage. Some days you just gotta fight – and it was a real fight.”

Sabalenka won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024, finishing runner-up to Madison Keys a year ago.

She will next face rising star Victoria Mboko, who defeated 14th seed Clara Towson 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3.

“I never really talked to her, never had a chance to hit with her, practice with her. I just watched some games,” Sabalenka said of the Canadian teenager. “Yeah, she’s a great player. She’s a fighter. She plays very good tennis, very aggressive.”

Yulia Putintseva shook off the roar of the crowd to end Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3.

Daniil Medvedev fought back from two sets down to defeat Fabian Marozsan 6-7 (5), 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3, marking the fifth time he had come back from 0-2 to win a Grand Slam match.

“I wasn’t calm after the first set because I was angry that I didn’t do better. It cost me in the second set,” said Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion and three-time Australian Open runner-up. Third, “I have to really let go. Think about what I need to do.”

He did, and now he has a rematch with the American Tian, ​​who beat him in five sets in the second round here last year.

Tian En, the 25th seed, defeated Nuno Borges 7-6(9), 6-4, 6-2 and advanced to the fourth round again.