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regular-article-logo Thursday, 10 October 2024

Japan Open 2023: Wild card Mochizuki stuns top seed Taylor Fritz

20-year-old rallies from 2-5 in third set, breaking Fritz’s serve to love when the American was trying to close out

AP/PTI Tokyo Published 20.10.23, 09:33 AM
Shintaro Mochizuki exults after defeating defending champion Taylor Fritz at the Japan Open on Thursday.

Shintaro Mochizuki exults after defeating defending champion Taylor Fritz at the Japan Open on Thursday. Twitter

Japanese wild card Shintaro Mochizuki continued his dream run at the Japan Open on Thursday, stunning world No. 10 Taylor Fritz 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) to reach the quarter finals.

The 20-year-old rallied from 2-5 in the third set, breaking Fritz’s serve to love when the American was trying to close out. Roared on by vocal home support, Mochizuki then raced to a 3/0 lead in the tie-break before sealing victory on his first match point after two hours and three minutes.

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"I don't really know what is happening right now," Mochizuki said. "I lost the first set so easy, so quick. Everyone knows he is a great player but I kept fighting and that is all I could do. I am so happy. I don't know how, but I won the match.

"I was a bit nervous at the start, not swinging. I was scared to miss. Then I tried to forget about everything and just started playing my game from the second set and that is how it went."

The Japanese star, who earned his maiden tour-level win in the first round against Tomas Martin Etcheverry, is the second Japanese player to defeat a top-10 player this year. Taro Daniel beat then-world No. 4 Casper Ruud in Acapulco.

Mochizuki took in the support of the crowd following his stunning win against Fritz.

He will next play Alexei Popyrin, who rallied from a set and a break down to beat qualifier Cristian Garin 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2.

Fourth-seeded Alex de Minaur became the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004 to make 10 tour-level quarter finals in a season. He beat Diego Schwartzman 6-0, 7-5 .

De Minaur, ranked 13th, will next play either Zhang Zhizhen or Aslan Karatsev.

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