Shintaro Mochizuki (Japanese: 望月 慎太郎, Mochizuki Shintarō, born 2 June 2003) is a Japanese professional tennis player. He has an ATP career-high singles ranking of world No. 92 on 10 November 2025 and a doubles ranking of No. 371 achieved on 18 October 2021. He is currently the No. 2 Japanese player. Mochizuki became the first Japanese male player in history to win a Grand Slam boys’ singles title at 2019 Wimbledon. Mochizuki achieved a career-high Junior ITF combined ranking of No. 1 on 15 July 2019.
Early life Shintaro Mochizuki was born in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. His name "Shintaro" was given by his father, inspired by the novelist and politician Shintaro Ishihara.
He started playing tennis at the age of 3. As a fifth grader, he represented Kawasaki Municipal Mukai Elementary School at the 32nd First Life National Elementary School Tennis Championship and managed to reach the semifinals.
At the age of 12, he passed the selection test for the Masaaki Morita Tennis Fund and went to the United States to train at the IMG Academy in Florida. He began attending N High School in 2019.
Career 2019: First Japanese man in a Junior major final In 2019 Mochizuki won the Wimbledon title after becoming the first Japanese male player to reach a Grand Slam juniors singles final. In September that year, he led the Japanese team to win the Junior Davis Cup in Orlando, Florida.
2021: ATP and Masters debuts In February, Mochizuki made his ATP main draw debut as a wildcard at the 2021 Singapore Tennis Open where he lost to Altug Celikbilek in straight sets.
In March, he qualified for his first ATP Masters 1000 main draw at the 2021 Miami Open having been given a wildcard for the qualifying competition.
He received a wildcard for the qualifying event at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships where he defeated Hugo Gaston to reach the second qualifying round.
2023-2024: Challenger title, Major debut, ATP semifinal, top 150 He won his first-ever trophy as a professional by winning the 2023 Open Città della Disfida Challenger in Barletta, Italy, defeating the Argentine Santiago Rodriguez Taverna in straight sets, becoming the fourth teenage Challenger champion in the season (after Fils, Van Assche and Medjedovic). He reached the top 200 at world No. 198 on 12 June 2023. In July, he made his Grand Slam debut after qualifying for the main draw of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships, but lost in the first round to 16th seed Tommy Paul in straight sets. At the 2023 Hall of Fame Open he lost to Liam Broady also in the first round.
Ranked No. 215, he received a wildcard for the ATP 500 2023 Japan Championships. After nine attempts, he finally won his first match at the ATP Tour level, beating Tomás Martín Etcheverry in straight sets. Next he defeated top seed Taylor Fritz for his first Top 10 win, to reach his first ATP tour-level quarterfinal. In the quarterfinals, he defeated Alexei Popyrin to reach his first-ever ATP semifinal. He became the lowest-ranked Tokyo semifinalist since then-world No. 479 Kelly Jones in 1986. As a result, he moved up 84 positions to World No. 131 in the rankings on 23 October 2023. In November, following a quarterfinal showing at the Sydney Challenger he reached the top 130 in the rankings and 13th in the 2023 Next Generation ATP Finals race.
He made his debut in the main draw at the 2024 Australian Open as a lucky loser, but lost to Tomáš Macháč in straight sets. He also qualified for the main draw at the 2024 French Open.
2025-2026: First Major wins and fourth round, top 100
In January 2025, Mochizuki won his second Challenger at the 2025 Open Nouvelle-Calédonie title defeating Moerani Bouzige in straight sets. In June, Mochizuki reached the semifinals at the Lexus Ilkley Open and the final of the 2025 Nottingham Open. Following these good results in grass he qualified for the main draw at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships for the second time, and recorded his first main draw Grand Slam win over fellow qualifier Giulio Zeppieri in a five sets match, over two days. Following reaching the quarterfinals with wins over Arthur Cazaux and fourth seed Luciano Darderi at the 2025 Almaty Open, Mochizuki reached the top 100 in the singles rankings on 20 October 2025.
In July 2026, ranked No. 151 Mochizuki reached a major fourth round for the first time in his career at the 2026 Wimbledon Championships, upsetting 23rd seed Rafael Jodar, after qualifying for the main draw, previously defeating Ethan Quinn and Max Basing in the second and first rounds respectively. In the fourth round he lost in straight sets against the world n° 1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner, who would later confirm the title.
Playing Style Standing at only 5 foot 9, Mochizuki is not a prolific server. However, he is renowned for his low bouncing strokes and exceptional shotmaking. His profile was highly anticipated during his time in Japan, though he has struggled in the ATP tour, with his playstyle contrasting the high spin, heavy-serve environment.
Performance timeline
Singles Tournament202120222023202420252026SRW–LWin%Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenAAA1RQ11R0 / 20–2French OpenAAQ11RQ1Q10 / 10–1WimbledonQ2A1RQ12R4R0 / 34–3US OpenAAQ2Q32R1R0 / 21–2Win–loss0-00-00–10–22–23–30 / 85–8ATP Masters 1000Indian Wells MastersQ1AA1RAQ20 / 10–1Miami Open1RQ2AQ1Q2Q10 / 10–1Monte Carlo MastersAAAAAA0 / 00–0Madrid OpenAAAQ2AA0 / 00-0Italian OpenAAAAA0 / 00–0Canadian OpenAAAA1R0 / 10–1Cincinnati MastersAAAAQ20 / 00–0Shanghai MastersNH Q1Q1Q10 / 00–0Paris MastersAAAAA0 / 00–0Win–loss0–10–00–00–10–10 / 30–3
ATP Challenger Tour finals
Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups) LegendATP Challenger Tour (2–2)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0Barletta, ItalyChallengerClay Santiago Rodríguez Taverna6–1, 6–4Win2–0Nouméa, New CaledoniaChallengerHard Moerani Bouzige6–1, 6–3Loss2–1Bengalaru, IndiaChallengerHard Brandon Holt3–6, 3–6Loss2–2Nottingham, UKChallengerGrass Marin Čilić2–6, 3–6
Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up) LegendATP Challenger Tour (1–1)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Cuernavaca, MexicoChallengerHard Carlos Gómez-Herrera Luke Saville John-Patrick Smith3–6, 7–6(7–4), [5–10]Win1–1Tenerife II, SpainChallengerHard Christian Harrison Francesco Passaro Matteo Gigante6–4, 6–3
ITF World Tennis Tour finals
Singles: 1 (1 runner-up) LegendITF WTT (0–1)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss0–1M25 Grodzisk Mazowiecki, PolandWTTClay Zsombor Piros3–6, 6–7(3–7)
Doubles: 7 (7 titles) LegendITF WTT (7–0)Finals by surfaceHard (7–0)Clay (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin1–0M15 Cancún, MexicoWTTHard Thiago Agustín Tirante Isaac Stoute Brandon Walkin6–7(4–7), 7–5, [10–4]Win2–0M15 Changwon, South KoreaWTTHard Naoki Nakagawa Chung Hong Lee Jea-moon6–4, 6–4Win3–0M15 Cancún, MexicoWTTHard Alejo Lorenzo Lingua Lavallén Tanner Smith Jordi ArconadawalkoverWin4–0M15 Sharm El Sheikh, EgyptWTTHard Rio Noguchi Ryan Nijboer Gijs Brouwer6–2, 7–5Win5–0M15 Santo Domingo, Dominican RepublicWTTHard Nick Hardt Gonzalo Lama Antonio Cayetano March6–3, 6–3Win6–0M15 Santo Domingo, Dominican RepublicWTTHard Nick Hardt Nick Chappell Keegan Smith4–6, 7–6(7–2), [10–5]Win7–0M15 Antalya, TurkeyWTTHard Rio Noguchi Constantin Schmitz Benjamin Hassan7–6(7–2), 6–2
Junior Grand Slam finals
Singles: 1 (1 title) ResultYearTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreWin2019WimbledonGrass Carlos Gimeno Valero6–3, 6–2
Wins over top 10 players He has a win-loss record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10. Season2023TotalWins11
#PlayerRankEventSurfaceRdScore20231. Taylor Fritz10Japan Open, JapanHard2R0–6, 6–4, 7–6(7–2)215 *
References
External links