Schoolkate responds following Woodbridge's "playing to lose" comments

Tristan Schoolkate has responded to claims that he was "playing to lose" following his first round loss to Frenchman Corentin Moutet.

Depsite Moutet being under an injury cloud which saw him request a medical time out, the No. 32 seed was still able to win in straight sets which sees the Western Australian become the first Aussie knocked out in the main draw.

This would see Channel 9's Todd Woodbridge say that he was playing to lose beliveing that Schoolkate should have made more of an effort to exploit that fact.

"You’re in a situation. You’re two sets to love down," he said during play.

"You’ve been down a break and your opponent gets an injury. What have you got to lose? He’s playing to lose here.

“Look, he’s playing as if he were up in a match and everything was on the line.

"He’s already been out of it. He shouldn’t be in this position.

"So, take it on, play the ball. Don’t play what’s happening at the other end of the court. Be smart."

But for Schoolkate, he believed that Moutet was simply too good.

"I can only deal with it how I was presented in there on the court today," he reflected.

"I'm sure people have things to say and that's OK.

"But I did my best and I lost today.

"I tried my hardest and it was nice to play in front of the home crowd...but I came second today."

This means that the World No. 97 will be unable to repeat his Second Round feat from last year's edition of the AO.

Moutet will now go on to play the winner between Sebastian Korda and Michael Zheng in the Second Round.

The Australian Open action continues with the night session about to get underway, with the two World No.1s, Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka set to take the stage.