(Tokyo) American Taylor Fritz was surprised 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) by crowd favorite Shintaro Mochizuki in the second round of the Japan Open on Thursday.
Mochizuki, who is 20 years old and ranked 215th in the world, trailed 5-2 in the third set before forcing a final tiebreaker. It was his first career victory against a world top 10 player.
The Japanese, visibly surprised by the turn of events, will therefore participate in the quarter-finals of an ATP tournament for the first time in his career. He will meet Alexei Popyrin, who erased a deficit of a set and a break before taking the measure of the Chilean Cristian Garin 4-6, 7-6 (3) and 6-2.
Alex de Minaur, the fourth seed, became the first Australian player since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004 to reach the quarter-finals of an ATP tournament 10 times in the same season. He defeated Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-0, 7-5.
De Minaur, ranked 13th in the world, will face the winner of the duel between Zhang Zhizhen and Aslan Karatsev in the next round.
On the other hand, Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime, eighth seed in the tournament, must face American Marcus Giron in the quarter-finals next night.
