Japan Open: Home hero Mochizuki continues brilliant run, moves into semi-finals

Japanese wildcard Shintaro Mochizuki advanced to the semi-finals of the Japan Open by edging out Australian Alexei Popyrin 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 at the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo on Friday.

The world No 215, who last round pulled off the upset of the tournament by defeating top seed American Taylor Fritz, the top seed (0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2)), again had to dig deep and go the distance against Popyrin. Mochizuki save six of nine break points with the crowd behind him, breaking the big-serving Australian on three occasions across the match.

Mochizuki, ranked No 215, will play Russian Aslan Karatsev next, who knocked out No 4 seed Alex de Minaur in straight sets earlier today.

Popyrin, ranked No 41, beat Russian Karen Khachanov, the No 7 seed (6-4, 6-2) and Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin (4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2) in the previous rounds of the Tokyo Open.

Tokyo ATP500, other last eight results (Ariake Colosseum, hard, USD 2.013.940, most recent results first):

• Aslan Karatsev beat Alex De Minaur (4): 6-3, 6-2
• Marcos Giron (Q) beat Felix Auger-Aliassime (8): 6-1, 6-4
• Ben Shelton beat Tommy Paul (5): 7-6 (4), 6-3