Wild card Shintaro Mochizuki shocks top seed Taylor Fritz at Japan Open - 'I don't know what’s happening right now'
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Updated 19/10/2023 at 22:56 GMT
There was a big upset at the Japan Open in Tokyo on Thursday as 215th-ranked wild card Shintaro Mochizuki knocked out first-seed and top-10 player Taylor Fritz to reach the quarter-finals. Mochizuki clinched the win, against all odds, in a third-set tie-break. "I don't really know what is happening right now,” he said. Mochizuki will play Alexei Popyrin in the next round.
Japanese wild card Mochizuki stuns Fritz in Tokyo
Japanese wild card Shintaro Mochizuki eliminated top seed Taylor Fritz from the Japan Open on Thursday in a seismic upset.
The 215th-ranked player overcame world No. 10 Fritz 0-6 6-4 7-6(2) on home soil in Tokyo to reach the quarter-finals.
Fritz stormed through the opening set without reply from Mochizuki as the American looked sure to book his spot in the last eight, but the 20-year-old battled back immensely to become the second Japanese player to beat an opponent in the top 10 this year, after Taro Daniel overcame Casper Ruud at the Mexico Open in March.
"I don't really know what is happening right now," Mochizuki said in disbelief, following his second win in Tokyo. "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."
After Fritz powered through the opener, Mochizuki redeemed himself with a convincing showing in the second set to force a decider.
The wild card fell 5-2 behind in the third set as Fritz closed in on back-to-back wins after defeating Cameron Norrie in the first round, but Mochizuki then broke the American’s serve to love.
Momentum swung into the home player's favour and he used the crowd’s support to force a tie-break, where he quickly gained a three-point lead.
Mochizuki sealed the win with his first match point after a riveting two-hour encounter and will take on Alexei Popyrin in the next round.
The defeat is a blow to Fritz, who is currently ninth in the ATP Live Race To Turin, one spot behind the top eight qualifying places.
He sits 145 points behind the final qualifying spot - currently occupied by Holger Rune - and will fall further down the pecking order if Alex de Minaur (13th) and Tommy Paul (12th) produce title runs in Tokyo.
De Minaur continued his title bid with a 6-0 7-5 win over Diego Schwartzman on Thursday and became the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004 to reach 10 tour-level quarter-finals in a season.
Elsewhere, Stefanos Tsitsipas scraped past Botic van de Zandschulp 7-5 6-3 in the opening round of the European Open.
The Greek returned to Antwerp in Belgium as the top seed, six years after he reached the 2017 semi-finals as a 19-year-old qualifier in 2017.
He was made to work hard for the victory on Thursday and edged a closely fought opener before finding his rhythm and dispatching his Dutch opponent with a strong service game in the second set.
"It took some time,” Tsitsipas said after booking his place in the quarter-finals. “I didn't have the best start that I would have expected but what a great way to end it.
“I felt like every point was a fight; every game there was an opportunity to do something. I was trying to maintain that consistency and work towards the victory."
Tsitsipas will face Yannick Hanfmann in the next round after beating Dominic Thiem in three sets.
Hanfmann prevailed in three keenly contested sets, winning 6-4 5-7 6-4, in a tense encounter.
The tournament's fifth seed would seal victory on his first match point, after breaking the Austrian's serve twice in the decisive third set.
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