Genius or Clownish – Tennis Now

By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, November 19, 2025Photo credit: Julian Finney/Getty

Corentin Moutet has flirted with the fine line between genius and madness.

After an epic mind-numbing tweener miss that proved costly in Davis Cup, Moutet conceded his shot selection “looks quite stupid.”

In case you missed it, Moutet was serving at 5-6, 15-all against Belgium’s Raphael Collignon when he had an easy short volley a few feet from net.

Instead of hitting the conventional shot, Moutet badly bungled a forward tweener attempt, after his opponent had already given up on the point.

Corentin Moutet attempted this completely unnecessary trick shot while up 6-2 5-6, 15-15 on Raphael Collignon of Belgium, leading to France, not just himself, losing the set and the match, and now being at risk of elimination in the Davis Cup Finals.

No words. pic.twitter.com/pnwyTgShKq

— Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) November 18, 2025

“What can I say? I made it many times. People said I’m a genius when I made it. Now they’re probably going to say that I’m a clown,” Moutet said afterward. “That’s how I feel right now.I think that the stress, the tension of the match, the emotion, that’s how I expressed it. I was tight on thisgame. So I think that’s why I did it.”

That horrific miss cost Moutet dearly.

A fired-up Collignon came back from a set down to defeat Moutet 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 in a thrilling opening match. Zizou Bergs followed with the 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over Arthur Rinderknech giving Belgium an insurmountable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three-match quarterfinal to send Team Belgium into its first Davis Cup semifinal since 2017.

A magical shotmaker at his best, Moutet said he regrets that tweener attempt.

“It’s hard to do the good choice, even if for the people it looks quite stupid to do this shot. Even for myself. I don’t know what to say,” Moutet said. “It was an important point. Will be much smarter to finishwith a volley. I said I cannot play again this shot. If I would have to play it again, I would do different, for sure.

“Yeah, I mean, in the same time it’s easy to criticize when it doesn’t go well, and say that it’s a great shot when I make it. So I’m trying not to be too hard on myself. In the same time, I try to be honest with myself, as well. I could do much better choices on this shot.”