By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Photo: Julian Finney/Getty
Corentin Moutet has flirted with the fine line between genius and madness.
After an epic absence that proved costly in the Davis Cup, Moutet admitted his selection “looks pretty stupid”.
In case you missed it, Moutet served 5-6, 15-all against Belgium Raphael Collignon when he had a short easy volley a few yards from the net.
Instead of hitting the conventional shot, Moutet misfired a forehand attempt as his opponent had already given up the point.
Corentin Moutet attempted this completely unnecessary trick shot during a 6-2 5-6, 15-15 defeat of Belgium’s Raphael Collignon, sending France, not just himself, down the set and the match, and now in danger of being knocked out of the Davis Cup finals.
not a word. pic.twitter.com/pnwyTgShKq
— Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) November 18, 2025
“What can I say? I’ve done it many times. People said I’m a genius when I did it. Now they’ll probably say I’m a clown,” Moutet said afterwards. “That’s how I feel now.
I think that I have expressed the stress, the tension of the match, the emotion. I was tight about it
game. So I think that’s why I did it.”
That terrible miss cost Moutet dearly.
A fired-up Collignon came back from a set down Mout 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 in a thrilling opening match. Zizou Bergs followed with a 6-3, 7-6(4) win over Arthur Rinderknech to give Belgium an unassailable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three quarter-final to send Belgium to its first Davis Cup semi-final since 2017.
A magic shooter at his best, Moutet said he regrets that comeback effort.
“It’s hard to make the right choice, even if it seems very stupid to people to make this shot. Even to myself. I don’t know what to say,” Moutet said. “It was an important point. It will be much smarter to finish
with a volley. I said I can’t play this shot again. If I had to play it again, I would do it differently, for sure.
“Yeah, I mean, at the same time it’s easy to criticize when it doesn’t go well and say it’s a great shot when I do. So I’m trying not to be too hard on myself. At the same time, I’m trying to be honest with myself as well. I can make a lot better choices on this shot.”
