LONDON - Japan's former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka dispatched Australian opponent Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-3 in just 65 minutes on Friday to reach the Wimbledon fourth round for the first time.
Japanese qualifier Shintaro Mochizuki, meanwhile, produced an upset in the men's draw, beating Spanish 23rd seed Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-4 and advancing to the round of 16 at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
Having won all four of her Grand Slam titles on hard courts, Osaka's breakthrough at the All England Lawn Tennis Club comes a week after reaching her first grass-court final in Germany's Bad Homburg.
The No. 14 seed credited her improved performance on the surface to her recent work with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.
"I would say he challenges me a lot to think outside the box," Osaka said in her post-match press conference.
"We were doing a lot of things on the hard court because where I train, they don't have a grass court. We were just doing a lot of different things. It's kind of made me understand grass-court tennis a lot more."
Osaka faces her toughest test of the tournament in the fourth round against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, to whom she lost in the fourth round of the French Open in June.
Ranked 151st, the 23-year-old Mochizuki became the third Japanese man to reach the Wimbledon fourth round in the Open Era, after Shuzo Matsuoka and Kei Nishikori.
He will meet top seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner of Italy in the fourth round.
