Shoma Uno was fourth at the Cup of Russia after the men's short program on Friday.
Uno, looking for his third victory in a Grand Prix series event after winning both Skate Canada and the NHK Trophy last year, scored 87.29 points, just 0.25 shy of Makar Ignatov's third-place score of 87.54.
Alexander Samrin led the 12-man field with 92.81, followed by Dmitri Aliev. Kazuki Tomono was seventh.
Uno, the Pyeongchang Olympic silver medalist, opened his program by falling on the landing of his first quad flip.
He recovered, however, following up by landing a quad toe loop-double toe loop combination and nailing a triple axel in the latter portion of his program.
"The big issue for me this time was whether or not I could execute my jumps other than the flip," Uno said. "So I'm extremely relieved."