Shintaro Mochizuki reached the Wimbledon third round without losing a set and now moves on to Rafa Jódar. The run gives him his deepest push in the tournament this year and adds another clean step to a grass-court surge that has been built match by match.
He handled the second round with 46 net approaches, then followed that with 34 in the first round. Mochizuki also won three qualifying-round matches at Wimbledon this year, so the main-draw run has come only after he kept winning through a full stretch of the event.
2019 Wimbledon to London
That progress carries extra weight because Mochizuki won the junior Wimbledon title in 2019. He was also put in a high-pressure frame early, with Roger Federer choosing him as a sparring partner at the 2019 ATP Finals, and Mochizuki saying, "Federer is my hero and at those ATP Finals, I could train with him. It was a dream, you feel that when he hits, he does it incredibly relaxed. Many people play with power and emotions, but he simply hits the ball with ease. He taught me that if I have the opportunity to play big events, to go for it".
His game has been described in sharp technical terms before: Max Mirnyi compared him to Fabrice Santoro for his sensitivity with the ball and his ability to exploit all four corners of the court. That kind of touch fits the numbers from Wimbledon this week, where the net work in both rounds shows a player taking charge of points instead of waiting for them to turn.
IMG and the Challenger circuit
The harder part of the story has been the gap between promise and week-to-week results. Mochizuki was seen as a possible successor to Kei Nishikori, and the source says his professional results have been inconsistent and have sent him to the Challenger circuit for stretches.
That is what makes this Wimbledon run useful to measure. Last year he won a match in the Wimbledon main draw, and this year he has already added three qualifying-round wins before pushing into the third round without dropping a set. The next test is Jódar, and Mochizuki arrives there with the cleanest possible record from his side of the draw so far.
