Shintaro Mochizuki reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time on Friday, beating Spanish 23rd seed Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-4 on Court 18 at Wimbledon to set a last-16 meeting with defending champion Jannik Sinner.
The result closed a seven-year loop. Mochizuki won the Wimbledon boys’ singles title in 2019, becoming the first Japanese male player to capture a junior Grand Slam. He returned to the same grass this fortnight ranked No. 151, having come through three rounds of qualifying, and turned a long-standing promise into the deepest run of his career.
The run. Mochizuki did not drop a set across the first two rounds, beating British qualifier Max Basing and American Ethan Quinn before losing the opener against Jodar. He recovered to take the next three sets, winning 71 percent of points behind his first serve and converting seven of 19 break points across just over three hours.
The historical marker. With the win, Mochizuki became the fourth Japanese man in the Open Era to reach the round of 16 at a Grand Slam, joining Kei Nishikori, Yoshihito Nishioka and Shuzo Matsuoka. It is a short list that underlines how rarely Japanese men have reached the second week of a major, and how well Mochizuki’s all-court game travels on grass, long his most productive surface.
The player. Now 23, Mochizuki trained for years at the IMG Academy in Florida, where Nishikori was an occasional hitting partner. He climbed to a career-high No. 92 in October 2025 but has spent much of his career on the Challenger tour, his best returns coming through Slam qualifying. The variety in his game — slice, net approaches, changes of pace — suits grass better than the slower surfaces where his results have stalled.
Jodar’s exit. For Jodar, the defeat was a jarring setback. The 19-year-old reached the Roland Garros quarterfinals last month, won his first tour title in Marrakech in April and made back-to-back Masters 1000 quarterfinals in Madrid and Rome. It was the first time he had lost to a player ranked outside the top 100 at a major.
What’s next. Mochizuki faces Sinner, the world No. 1, for the first time. He said he would try to make the Italian “uncomfortable” with a disruptive, low-margin style rather than trade from the baseline. A win would extend one of the tournament’s more unlikely runs; a loss would still leave him with the best fortnight of his professional career.
