French tennis player Corentin Moutet, 27, has again stirred controversy on the ATP Tour after an on-court television interview at Queen’s Club in London. The world No. 36 was interviewed after beating fellow Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round, and repeatedly used an expletive when describing the point where his opponent hit a 142 mph second serve. When reporter Courtney Drummond asked him to avoid swear words, Moutet took the microphone back and repeated the same profanity several times, prompting her to cut the segment short while the crowd laughed.
Moutet’s behavior did not stop there. In the second round against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, he slipped on the grass, angrily smashed his racket on the court, shouted more curses in French toward his coaching team, and sent a ball out of the stadium after losing 6-4, 6-3. Former British player and BBC analyst Annabel Croft said he could face a fine, adding, “He is facing enough fines anyway.” The ATP may still punish him for public use of offensive language during the tournament.
Afterward, Moutet appeared to play down the incident on Instagram, writing that he was joking and hoped nobody was hurt by it. He thanked fans for the support. Even so, social media criticism was intense, including a post from Boris Becker asking, “What is wrong with this guy?” Journalist Jose Moron wrote that wanting to be funny is one thing, but “there is no need to resort to such behavior.”
The episode adds to a long list of disciplinary issues involving Moutet. In early April in Marrakech, he climbed into the stands to confront a heckling fan. In 2015 in Madrid, he was heavily criticized after a match against Harold Mayot, when he pretended to hand a broken racket to a child in the crowd, then pulled it away mockingly, before leaving the match due to a claimed lower-back injury. Last year he also accused Russia’s Pavel Kotov on X of threatening to kill him during a suspended match, and later clashed with Alexander Bublik, who told him to meet in the parking lot to settle matters.
