"Do your job before talking" - 1st controversy of Wimbledon erupts as Corentin Moutet gets into war of words with journalist over incorrect accusation
Corentin Moutet announced his withdrawal from the 2024 Wimbledon Championships minutes after the draw was made, which led to an unexpected controversy setting alight the tennis world. The Frenchman ended up getting into a spat with a journalist after he was accused mistakenly of intentionally withdrawing late to help out one of his compatriots.
On Friday, June 28, the draw for the Grass Major came out at 10 am local time. A few minutes later, Moutet announced his decision to pull out of the tournament, stating that he has been dealing with a bone injury since the French Open.
The World No. 55 is on the French squad for the upcoming Paris Olympics at the end of the month, which also factored into his decision making.
"Since my preparation for Roland Garros, I have been dealing with a bone bruise injury. Despite trying everything possible to heal and be ready for Wimbledon, the pain persists," Moutet wrote on social media.
"This is not a decision we took lightly, but it is necessary to ensure I do not risk my participation in the upcoming Olympic Games," he added.
Reacting to this, journalist Jose Morgado alleged that Moutet's withdrawal would lead to French tennis player Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard getting into the draw as a lucky loser. Morgado was of the belief that had Moutet withdrawn before the draw, the slot would have instead went to a random player chosen from a pool of four highest-ranked losers from the final round of qualifiers.
As it turns out, that is not the case at all in Grand Slams. Even if a player pulls out after the draw, the position will go to a lucky loser chosen at random from the aforementioned selected group. In this instance, Corentin Moutet's slot went to James Duckworth of Australia instead of Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard as Morgado had claimed.
Moutet pointed that out to the journalist, and lashed out by asking him to do his job before throwing accusations at players.
"Do your job before talking," Moutet wrote.
Morgado deleted his original tweet and issued a correction, which did not satisfy the 25-year-old either.
"Why did you delete your other tweet accusing me?" Moutet responded to the correction.
Corentin Moutet has never gone past the second round at Wimbledon
Corentin Moutet has only made three appearances at Wimbledon so far, and has never gone past the second round. In his maiden main draw appearance at SW19 in 2019, he defeated Grigor Dimitrov but lost in the next match to Felix Auger-Aliassime.
In 2021, he fell in the first round. After skipping the 2022 edition, he again reached the second round in 2023 before falling to Roman Safiullin in straight sets. In Grand Slams overall, the Frenchman's best run has been reaching the fourth round, doing so at the French Open (2024) and the US Open (2022).