Shintaro Mochizuki advanced to the fourth round of a major for the first time on Friday when he upset Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-4 at Wimbledon and set a fourth-round showdown with World No. 1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner.
Mochizuki, the No. 151 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, stunned Jodar on Court 18 in three hours. Minutes later, on Court 1, Sinner eased past Jenson Brooksby 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to book his place in the fourth round.
In the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting, Mochizuki recovered after dropping the opening set and was pushed by the 23rd seed throughout, but the Japanese held firm to seal the biggest win of his career. The 23-year-old converted seven of the 19 break points he earned and won 71 per cent (44/62) of points behind his first serve.
"The match was crazy," Mochizuki shared in his post-match press conference. "I think Rafa started playing really well, especially on the returns. Wasn't serving bad at all. But he was just ripping all the returns. I didn't have anything to adjust until the middle of the second set.
"Somehow I tried to go for second serve a little bit more, and I think it got better. I started holding better and better. I was returning well from the beginning, so I just kept fighting, fighting."
Mochizuki arrived at Wimbledon without a tour-level win to his name this season. After battling through three rounds of qualifying, the 23-year-old earned straight-set victories against home favourite Max Basing in the first round and Ethan Quinn in the second before producing his breakthrough win against Jodar in the third round.
With his victory against the #NextGenATP Spaniard, Mochizuki became just the fourth Japanese man in the Open Era to reach the singles Round of 16 at a major, joining Kei Nishikori (22 appearances), Yoshihito Nishioka (2) and Shuzo Matsuoka (1).
Making his Wimbledon main-draw debut, Jodar was aiming to continue his breakthrough season at SW19 after reaching his first major quarter-final at Roland Garros last month. Earlier this year, the 2025 Next Gen ATP Finals competitor won his first tour-level title in Marrakech in April and advanced to back-to-back ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals in Madrid and Rome.
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