Shintaro Mochizuki stunned the tennis world yet another time at the quarter finals of the Kinoshita Group Japan OpenTennis Championships this evening by beating Alexei Popyrin. This comes straight off the heels of a victory against the defending champion and world number 10 seed Taylor Fritz in a three set shocker last night.

Mochizuki came into the tournament on a wildcard and is ranked 215th in the world. Tonight a packed Ariake Colosseum witnessed their own man resist the relentless and powerful serving of the 6’5” 41 ranked Australian who scored no fewer than 21 aces during the 3 set match.

An early break was not what the crowd had been hoping for but their hopes were lifted immediately when Mochizuki broke back to level 1-1. There was no further break until 6-5 when Popyrin served to stay in the match. Uncharacteristically he started off with a double fault, then missed the next point to the deafening roar of the crowd. On the next serve Mochizuki made a blinding return of serve for a break and set point and did not allow his opponent to take a single point for a 7-5 win.

The second set followed form with Popyrin breaking Mochizuki’s in the first game after Mochizuki’s serve and volley did not pay off. The crowd cheered on their man with a perfectly coordinated ‘Let’s go Shintaro, let’s go’. However Popyrin’s combination of pushing Mochizuki far wide followed by a drop shot took a 2-0 lead. Mochizuki used a combination of forehand, big serve, drop shot and serve and volley to take his first game in the match. A big service game by Popyrin with 2 aces widened the gap to 3-1. Mochizuki had an ace of his own for 2-3 but Popyrin got the break at 4-2 when Mochizuki missed a drop shot and net shot to give Popyrin a 5-2 lead. In the final game of the set, Popyrin aced his way through without resistance from Mochizuki winning 6-2.

The first game of the third set was hard fought on Mochizuki’s serve and after several deuce/advantage points, Mochizuki resisted by going to the net and smashing a high ball to finally close off the game. At 5-5 Popyrin pushed for the break with a serve and volley giving rise to a lob which went over Mochizuki’s head for deuce. Mochizuki went on to save 2 break points and get the advantage himself and when he finally concluded the stadium erupted. At 40-15 it seemed like a tie break was inevitable but Popyrin hit two returns past the baseline and the crowd went wild. A highly intense exchange ended with Mochizuki taking the break point and when Popyrin missed wide, the fans jumped on their feet cheering and history was made.

At the post match press conference Mochizuki admitted he had not slept very well but said that it didn’t affect his play. He said he came into the tournament hoping for one main draw win and now he has three. Mochizuki goes on to play Aslan Karatsev in the semi finals tomorrow.