Carlos Alcaraz wins third-round match but loses 'drop-shot battle' at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz had to acknowledge that while he won the third-round match, he lost the battle of the drop shots against Corentin Moutet.

That could be a first for the 22-year-old Spaniard, who grew up relentlessly practicing his drop shots and is now at the Australian Open chasing a career Grand Slam.

The left-handed Moutet mixed things up for Alcaraz in an almost festival Friday vibe on Rod Laver Arena, his blend of drop shots, slice, lobs, tweeners, volleys and even an underarm serve keeping the world's No. 1-ranked player on his toes.

“When you play someone like Corentin you don’t know what’s going to be next,” Alcaraz said after his 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win over the No. 32 seed. “I had so much fun on the court. As you could see, we both pulled off great shots. Great points.”

Late in the first set, he said he was already fed up with tracking down drop shots and told his support team “I’m not going to run to get those.”

“I thought we were in a drop-shot competition," he said, laughing, "but he won!”

Ever the showman, Alcaraz chimed in with some of his own tricks and tweeners across three sets. It helped him stay composed, even when Moutet went on a four-game roll in the second set.

In the first round, Moutet was booed by the crowd for his underarm serve on match point. For his debut on the main arena, there was much more love from the Aussie crowd.

When he held in that game with a winning volley, he marked it by doffing his cap.

Alcaraz will next play Sunday against No. 19 Tommy Paul, who advanced when Alejandro Davidovich Fokina retired with an injury after dropping the first two sets 6-1, 6-1.

No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Coco Gauff had tough routes through the third round.

Sabalenka said there were times she felt like her head, her hands and her racket were not connected but she still had just enough to squeeze past Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7).

Gauff weathered early trouble against Hailey Baptiste before advancing 3-6, 6-0-6-3, cutting down her unforced errors and not serving any double-faults in the second set.

Sabalenka , chasing her third Australian Open title in four years, led 6-5 and 40-0 in her opening set but Potapova saved all three set points to send it to a tiebreaker.

In the second set, Potapova recovered two service breaks to level it at 4-4 and then again force a tiebreaker. Potapova then had three set points but Sabalenka rallied when the pressure was on.

“She played incredible tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I was always on the back foot. There are days where you just have to fight — it was such a fight.”

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

She next faces rising star Victoria Mboko, who beat 14th-seeded Clara Tauson 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3.

Sabalenka said she watched some of the Canadian teenager's matches and made notes: “She’s a fighter. She’s playing really good, aggressive tennis.”

Another teenager advanced when 18-year-old Iva Jovic beat No. 7 Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 7-6 (3). Jovic said after being broken twice while serving for the match that she decided to go out swinging.

She'll next play Yulia Putintseva, who shrugged off a vocal and mostly unfriendly crowd to end Turkish player Zeynep Sonmez 's run, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3.

Daniil Medvedev rallied from two sets down for a 6-7 (5), 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 comeback win over Fabian Marozsan, the fifth time he's rallied from 0-2 to win a Grand Slam match.

“I was not calm after the first set because I was mad at myself for not doing better. It cost me in the second,” Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion and three-time Australian Open runner-up, said. In the third, “I had to really let it go. Just think about what I need to do.”

He did that, and now he into a rematch with Learner Tien, the American who upset him in a second-round five-setter here last year.

The 25th-seeded Tien advanced to the fourth round again with a 7-6 (9), 6-4, 6-2 win over Nuno Borges.

Coco Gauff, left, of the U.S. is congratulated by compatriot Hailey Baptiste following their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain plays a backhand return to Corentin Moutet of France during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Corentin Moutet of France bows during his third round match against Carlos Alcaraz of Spain at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain plays a backhand return to Corentin Moutet of France during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Victoria Mboko of Canada waves after defeating Clara Tauson of Denmark in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Learner Tien, right, of the U.S. is congratulated by Nuno Borges, left, of Portugal during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus celebrates after defeating Bai Zhuoxuan of China in their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Aryna Sabalenka, right, of Belarus, is congratulated by Anastasia Potapova, left, of Austria following their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus serves to Anastasia Potapova of Austria during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The toll in Iran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has reached at least 5,002 people killed, activists said Friday, warning many more were feared dead as the most comprehensive internet blackout in the country's history crossed the two-week mark.

The challenge in getting information out of Iran persists because of authorities cutting off access to the internet on Jan. 8, even as tensions rise between the United States and Iran as an American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East — a force U.S. President Donald Trump likened to an “armada” in comments to journalists late Thursday.

Analysts say a military buildup could give Trump the option to carry out strikes, though so far he's avoided that despite repeated warnings to Tehran.

“While President Trump now appears to have backtracked, likely under pressure from regional leaders and cognizant that airstrikes alone would be insufficient to implode the regime, military assets continue to be moved into the region, indicating kinetic action may still happen,” a New York-based think tank called the Soufan Center said in an analysis Friday.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency offered the death toll, saying 4,716 were demonstrators, 203 were government-affiliated, 43 were children and 40 were civilians not taking part in the protests. It added that more than 26,800 people had been detained in a widening arrest campaign by authorities.

The group's figures have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s government offered its first death toll Wednesday, saying 3,117 people were killed. It added that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began Dec. 28 were civilians and security forces, with the rest being “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, in part because of authorities cutting access to the internet and blocking international calls into the country. Iran also reportedly has limited journalists’ ability locally to report on the aftermath, instead repeatedly airing claims on state television that refer to demonstrators as “rioters” motivated by the United States and Israel, without offering evidence to support the allegation.

The new toll comes as tensions remain high over Trump laying down two red lines over the protests — the killing of peaceful demonstrators and Tehran conducting mass executions. Iran’s attorney general and others have called some of those being held “mohareb” — or “enemies of God.” That charge carries the death penalty. It had been used along with others to carry out mass executions in 1988 that reportedly killed at least 5,000 people.

The American military meanwhile has moved more military assets toward the Mideast, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated warships traveling with it from the South China Sea.

A U.S. Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday that the Lincoln strike group is in the Indian Ocean.

Trump said Thursday aboard Air Force One that the U.S. is moving the ships toward Iran “just in case” he wants to take action.

“We have a massive fleet heading in that direction and maybe we won’t have to use it,” Trump said.

Trump also mentioned the multiple rounds of talks that American officials had with Iran over its nuclear program prior to Israel launching a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, which saw U.S. warplanes bomb Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran with military action that would make earlier U.S. strikes against its uranium enrichment sites “look like peanuts.”

“They should have made a deal before we hit them,” Trump said.

The U.K. Defense Ministry separately said that its joint Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet squadron with Qatar, 12 Squadron, “deployed to the (Persian) Gulf for defensive purposes noting regional tensions.”

Iran commemorated “the Day of the Guardian” on Friday, an annual event for its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which was key in putting down the nationwide protests.

To mark the day, an Iranian state television channel aired a typically religious talk show that instead saw its cleric and prayer singers look at Iranian military drones. They fired up the engines of several of the Shahid drones, one of which has been used extensively by Russia in its war on Ukraine.

A man identified as a member of the security forces, who wore a surgical mask and sunglasses during the telecast to hide his identity, also made a threat in mangled Hebrew toward Israel, trying to say: “We are closer to you than you think.”

Konstantin Toropin in Washington, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

People walk at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)