Shintaro Mochizuki defeats Taylor Fritz in Tokyo to reach last four

Japanese wild card Shintaro Mochizuki repeatedly rallied for a thrilling knockout of No. 1 seed Taylor Fritz on Thursday at the Japan Open in Tokyo to reach the quarterfinals.

The 20-year-old took a goose egg in the first set and trailed 2-5 in the third before completing an unlikely 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory in just over two hours for his first career top-10 win.

“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.”

Mochizuki will look to continue his dream run on home soil in the quarterfinals against Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, who outlasted Chile’s Cristian Garin 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the Round of 16.

Elsewhere, fourth-seeded Alex de Minaur only faced one break point in a 6-0, 7-5 win against Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman. He will face Russia’s Aslan Karatsev, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over China’s Zhang Zhizhen.