2 days ago
Tennis: Junior Wimbledon champ Mochizuki gets 1st win at Grand Slam
LONDON (Kyodo) -- Japan's Shintaro Mochizuki won his first match at a Grand Slam on Tuesday after coming from behind to edge Giulio Zeppieri of Italy in five sets at Wimbledon.
Mochizuki, the 2019 Wimbledon junior singles champion and first Japanese to win the title, prevailed 2-6, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6), 7-5 in a 3-hour, 14-minute marathon in the men's singles first round. The match was suspended at the end of the fourth set on Monday due to the late-night curfew.
The players held serve for a combined 11 games after the match's resumption, before 144th-ranked Mochizuki capitalized on the 351st-ranked Italian's double fault to earn two match points. He clinched the victory on the first by sending a forehand return down the line.
"I was quite fatigued after playing four sets, and the suspension (on Monday) wasn't a negative thing," Mochizuki said.
"The best thing was managing to grind out a win from a hard, difficult match, more than getting a win at a Grand Slam."
His compatriot Yoshihito Nishioka, 82nd in the world, lost 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to 21st-ranked Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
