“Well, I think to maintain the focus in a Grand Slam is always difficult, but I think when you are facing these kind of players, even more difficult,” Alcaraz said.
“When you don’t know what’s coming, he could do whatever he wants to do, so it’s just tricky. You can go a little bit farther on the court, but then right away he makes a dropshot. If you go forward, he goes with topspin. So sometimes it’s just tricky.
“But, you know, I’m just happy, because I just got the good focus all the time. When the things that didn’t go to my side, just stayed there, and then trying to weigh my good moment again, my good rhythm, which I got in the second set.”
Moutet was looking to reach the fourth round at a Slam for just the third time and a boilover would have made him the first Frenchman since Arnaud Clement at US Open 2000 to beat the world No.1 at a major.
To do so he would need to beat a top-10 player at a Slam for the first time in eight attempts, but Alcaraz put paid to those plans despite losing bragging rights in the drop-shot stakes.