TOKYO: Defending champion Taylor Fritz said he could not cope with an “incredible” turnaround from world number 215 Shintaro Mochizuki as he crashed out of the Japan Open with a stunning second-round loss on Thursday.
Top-seed Fritz, the highest-ranked American in the world at number 10, lost 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) to the Japanese wild card, who went into the tournament without a tour-level win to his name.
Fritz, who has won two titles this season, looked to be cruising into the quarter-finals when he took the first set to love in just 29 minutes.
But the momentum shifted midway through the second set when Mochizuki broke serve, and the 20-year-old fought back from a losing position in the third to force a tiebreaker and claim the win.
“It was all smooth and then I had the chance to break in the second, didn’t get it and then after that I feel like he was playing incredible tennis,” said Fritz. “He served really well, he was constantly hitting the lines with his serve -- it was tough for me to attack.”
Mochizuki, who qualified for his first Grand Slam appearance at Wimbledon this year, said he was “trying not to be nervous but I was” in his first match against a top-10 player.
He loosened up in the second set and Fritz said his opponent performed “at the level of a top player for the next two sets”.
Mochizuki quickly took control in the tiebreaker and closed the match out with a volleyed smash at the net to delight the Tokyo crowd.
His quarter-final opponent will be Australian Alexei Popyrin, who beat Chile’s Cristian Garin 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2.
Fritz’s exit meant the top three seeds in Tokyo have all been eliminated, with Norwegian number two Casper Ruud and German number three Alexander Zverev also bowing out early.
Number four seed Alex de Minaur progressed to the quarter-finals with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman.
Russia’s Aslan Karatsev also advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over China’s Zhang Zhizhen. Agencies
Also Watch: