Shintaro Mochizuki sends Hynek Barton packing

Shintaro Mochizuki recovered in time to reach the quarterfinals of Delhi Open Challenger tennis on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan stopped the fine run of qualifier Hynek Barton of Czech Republic 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals of the Dafanews $100,000 Delhi Open Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.

A former Wimbledon junior champion who had also made the semifinals of the Junior French Open in 2019 when he rose to be world No.1, the 21-year-old Japanese turned the tide in his favour after the Czech had hardly put a foot wrong in the first set.

The fighting qualities and fluent game of Mochizuki would be put to further test by another Czech, the top seed Vit Kopriva, in the quarterfinals.

Niki Poonacha did manage to see off the Japanese duo of Mochizuki and Kaito Uesugi in partnership with Courtney Lock of Zimbabwe in the doubles quarterfinals, later in the day.

NIki and Lock , who won 10-5 in the super tie-break with a combination of sizzling strokes and sharp volleys, will play third seeds Jay Clarke and Johannes Ingildsen in the semifinals.

Elias Ymer of Sweden sustained his strong game to set up a singles quarterfinal against second seed Billy Harris of Britain.

The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Vit Kopriva (Cze) bt Dalibor Svrcina (Cze) 6-4, 6-1; Shintaro Mochizuki (Jpn) bt Hynek Barton (Cze) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3; Elias Ymer (Swe) bt Egor Agafonov 6-3, 6-4; Billy Harris (GBR) bt James McCabe (aus) 7-6(2), 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Masamichi Imamura & Rio Noguchi (Jpn) bt Enzo Couacaud (Fra) & Kelsey Stevenson (Can) 6-1, 6-4; Hynek Barton & Vit Kopriva (cze) bt Kris Van Wyk (RSA) & Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr) 6-4, 6-1; Jay Clarke (GBR) & Johannes Ingildsen (Den) bt Kimmer Coppejans & Michael Geerts (Bel) 4-6, 6-2, [10-5]; Niki Poonacha & Courtney Lock (Zim) bt Shintaro Mochizuki & Kaito Uesugi (Jpn) 6-3, 2-6, [10-5].