Rinky Hijikata

Following a successful career at the UNC, he went professional and achieved career high ATP rankings in singles of world No. 70 on 16 October 2023 and in doubles of No. 23 on 30 October 2023.

Rinky Hijikata

Hijikata at the 2023 Cary Challenger II
Country (sports)	Australia
Born	(2001-02-23) 23 February 2001 (age 23) Sydney, Australia
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Turned pro	2021
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
College	UNC
Prize money	$1,670,501
Singles
Career record	19–22 (46.3% in ATP Tour and Grand Slam main draw matches, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 70 (16 October 2023)
Current ranking	No. 80 (1 April 2024)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2R (2023)
French Open	Q1 (2023)
Wimbledon	Q3 (2022)
US Open	4R (2023)
Doubles
Career record	22–19 (53.7% in ATP Tour and Grand Slam main draw matches, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	No. 23 (30 October 2023)
Current ranking	No. 57 (1 April 2024)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	W (2023)
French Open	1R (2023)
Wimbledon	2R (2023)
Other doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	RR (2023)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2023)
Medal record Boys' Tennis Representing a mixed-NOCs team Youth Olympic Games 2018 Buenos Aires Doubles
Last updated on: 1 April 2024.

Hijikata was born in Sydney, Australia to Japanese immigrant parents. He began playing tennis at age three or four. He attended The King's School in Sydney from 2013 to 2016. His father is a tennis coach. His favourite player growing up was Lleyton Hewitt and later, Kei Nishikori. Hijikata played college tennis for North Carolina Tar Heels men's tennis from 2019 to 2021.

2018–2021: Career beginnings

 

In March 2018, Hijikata made his ITF debut at the Australia F3 in Mornington, Australia. He won his first match the following week at the Australia F4.

In October 2018, Hijikata won silver at the Tennis at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics – Boys' doubles, teaming with Bulgaria's Adrian Andreev.

In January 2019, Hijikata was given a wildcard into the 2019 Australian Open – Men's singles qualifying. He lost in the first round to Hiroki Moriya. In March, Hijikata reached the quarter-final and semi-finals in the ITF events in Mornington, Australia. Later that year, in September, Hijikata won his first professional singles title at the M15 Fayetteville, in Arkansas, United States.

Hijikata received wildcards into qualifying for the Australian Open in both 2020 and 2021, losing in the second round both times.

Hijikata won his second and third ITF titles in July 2021 and claimed a total of four ITF World Tennis Tour singles titles during 2021. He finished 2021 with a singles ranking of 369 as of 22 November 2021.

2022: ATP & Major debut, Maiden win & Challenger title, top 200

In January 2022, Hijikata made his ATP tour debut at the 2022 Melbourne Summer Set 1 after qualifying for the main draw. It was also Hijikata's first top 100 win, defeating world number 98 Henri Laaksonen in the final qualifying round. He lost in the first round to eventual finalist, Maxime Cressy. He also played doubles with Christopher O'Connell.

Hijikata lost in the second round of the 2022 Australian Open – Men's singles qualifying.

In April, Hijikata broke into the ATP top 300 after winning consecutive ITF tournaments in California in March 2022.

In August, he qualified for the 2022 Los Cabos Open and reached the round of 16 recording his first ATP win after the retirement of the Mexican wildcard debutant Rodrigo Pacheco Méndez. He lost to top seed and World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev who recorded his 250th match win. As a result he moved one position shy of the top 200 on 8 August 2022. He made his Grand Slam debut at the US Open as a wildcard.

He won his maiden Challenger title in Playford, Australia and moved 33 positions up into the top 160 at world No. 159 on 31 October 2022. He became the youngest Australian to win a Challenger title since 2018, when the-then 19-year-old Alexei Popyrin won in Jinan, China.

2023: First Major singles win & doubles title, ATP singles semifinal & Masters & top 70 debuts, top 25 in doubles

Hijikata was given a wildcard into the Australian Open, where he recorded his first Grand Slam win by defeating Yannick Hanfmann in a come-from-behind victory. He lost in the second round to third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. Pairing with Jason Kubler in the men's doubles event, they won the title after defeating three seeded teams en route; sixth seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliövaara in the second round, saved a match point in the third round against Tomislav Brkić and Gonzalo Escobar, top seeds and world No. 1 doubles pair Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski in the quarterfinals, and eighth seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the semifinals. They went on to defeat Hugo Nys and Jan Zieliński in the final, becoming the second consecutive all-Australian champions at the event.

At the 2023 Delray Beach Open he reached the semifinals in doubles partnering American Reese Stalder and defeating second seeded pair of Jamie Murray and Michael Venus in the quarterfinals. He reached the final defeating Mexican duo Hans Hach Verdugo and Miguel Ángel Reyes-Varela.

He made his Masters 1000 debut in Indian Wells as a qualifier, and defeated Mikael Ymer in the first round in straight sets. He lost in the second round to 30th seed Sebastián Báez.

At the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships he entered the main draw as a lucky loser for his debut on grass and won his first match defeating wildcard Gijs Brouwer. He then defeated Marc-Andrea Hüsler from a set down to reach his first ATP tour level quarterfinal. Again from a set down, he beat Mackenzie McDonald to reach his first semifinal at ATP tour level.

He reached the fourth round of the 2023 US Open having received a wildcard, defeating Pavel Kotov, Márton Fucsovics and Zhizhen Zhang. As a result he made his top 100 debut in the rankings at world No. 82 climbing 28 spots on 11 September 2023. He qualified on his debut at the 2023 Rolex Shanghai Masters and defeated Laslo Djere in the first round. At the same tournament he reached the semifinals partnering Cameron Norrie. At the 2023 Japan Open Tennis Championships he won his second doubles title with compatriot Max Purcell. As a result he reached the top 25 in doubles on 23 October 2023.

2024:

Hijikata started the year off with a quarterfinal appearance at the 2024 Brisbane International, defeating fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis and Tomas Machac before being defeated by eventual champion Grigor Dimitrov. At the 2024 Dallas Open, Hijikata made it to his fourth doubles final alongside William Blumberg, losing a tight final against Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson. He reached his third ATP quarterfinal at the 2024 Delray Beach Open a defeat over Liam Broady and an upset over sixth seed Matteo Arnaldi. At the 2024 Los Cabos Open he again upset the sixth seed, this time Miomir Kecmanović.

At the 2024 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships he recorded his first clay court win over fifth seed Christopher Eubanks.

Singles

Current through the 2024 Miami Open.

Doubles

Current through the 2024 Miami Open.

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	2023	Australian Open	Hard	Jason Kubler	Hugo Nys   Jan Zieliński	6–4, 7–6(7–4)

Doubles: 4 (2-2)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Jan 2023	Australian Open, Australia	Grand Slam	Hard	Jason Kubler	Hugo Nys   Jan Zieliński	6–4, 7–6(7–4)
Loss	1–1	Feb 2023	Delray Beach Open, USA	250 Series	Hard	Reese Stalder	Marcelo Arévalo   Jean-Julien Rojer	3–6, 4–6
Win	2–1	Oct 2023	Japan Open, Japan	500 Series	Hard	Max Purcell	Jamie Murray   Michael Venus	6–4, 6–1
Loss	2–2	Feb 2024	Dallas Open, United States	250 Series	Hard	William Blumberg	Max Purcell  Jordan Thompson	4–6, 6–2, [8–10]

Singles: 13 (9–4)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Sep 2019	M15 Fayetteville, USA	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Nick Chappell	2–6, 6–2, 6–1
Win	2–0	Jul 2021	M15 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Valentin Vacherot	6–3, 6–1
Win	3–0	Jul 2021	M15 Edwardsville, USA	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Strong Kirchheimer	6–3, 6–1
Win	4–0	Sep 2021	M25 Sierre, Switzerland	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Oliver Crawford	7–6, 6–1
Loss	4–1	Oct 2021	M25 Setúbal, Portugal	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Arthur Cazaux	5–7, 0–6
Win	5–1	Oct 2021	M25 Calabasas, USA	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tristan Boyer	3–6, 7–6, 6–2
Loss	5–2	Mar 2022	M25 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Geoffrey Blancaneaux	6–3, 2–6, 2–6
Win	6–2	Mar 2022	M25 Bakersfield, USA	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Keegan Smith	6–1, 7–5
Win	7–2	Mar 2022	M25 Calabasas, USA	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Charles Broom	7–5, 6–2
Loss	7–3	Aug 2022	M25 Columbus, USA	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Murphy Cassone	3–6, 0–6
Win	8–3	Oct 2022	Playford, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Rio Noguchi	6–1, 6–1
Win	9–3	Feb 2023	Burnie, Australia	Challenger	Hard	James Duckworth	6–3, 6–3
Loss	9–4	Sep 2023	Cary, USA	Challenger	Hard	Zachary Svajda	6–7(3–7), 6–4, 1–6

Doubles: 4 (3–1)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Jul 2021	M15 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Kody Pearson	Jacob Brumm   August Holmgren	5–7, 6–7
Win	1–1	Oct 2021	M25 Loulé, Portugal	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Mick Veldheer	Gonçalo Falcão   Tomás Lipovšek Puches	6–2, 6–3
Win	2–1	Feb 2022	M25 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Henry Patten	Hsu Yu-hsiou   Wu Tung-lin	2–6, 7–6(7–4), [10–3]
Win	3–1	Sep 2023	Cary, USA	Challenger	Hard	Andrew Harris	William Blumberg   Luis David Martinez	6–4, 3–6, [10–6]

Singles: 4 (2-2)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Category	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Oct 2017	30th Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup, Malaysia	Category G3	Hard	Digvijay Pratap Singh	7–6(7–5), 6–3
Win	2–0	Aug 2018	Oceania Closed Junior Championships, Fiji	Category G2	Hard	Tristan Schoolkate	6–2, 6–4
Loss	2–1	Sep 2018	Les Internationaux de Tennis Junior Banque Nationale du Canada, Canada	Category G1	Hard	Hugo Gaston	3–6, 4–6
Loss	2–2	Nov 2018	2018 Seogwipo Asia/Oceania Closed Junior Championships, South Korea	Category G1	Hard	Bu Yunchaokete	3–6, 1–6

Doubles: 10 (6-4)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Category	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Feb 2017	NZ ITF Summer Championships 2017, New Zealand	Category G3	Hard	Kody Pearson	Thomas Bosancic   Benard Bruno Nkomba	3–6, 0–6
Win	1–1	Aug 2017	AS Open 2017, Slovenia	Category G4	Clay	Dane Sweeny	Brian Bencic   Nemanja Malesevic	6–4, 6–3
Win	2–1	Sep 2017	3rd Torneo Internazionale Junior "Citta' Di Palermo", Italy	Category G3	Clay	Dane Sweeny	Daniil Glinka   Roberts Grinvalds	6–1, 6–4
Loss	2–2	Jan 2018	AGL Loy Yang Traralgon Junior International, Australia	Category G1	Hard	Taisei Ichikawa	Wojciech Marek   Tseng Chun-hsin	6–7(1–7), 4–6
Loss	2–3	Jun 2018	54th Astrid Bowl Charleroi, Belgium	Category G1	Clay	Naoki Tajima	Pavel Shumeiko   Henri Squire	6–7(5–7), 3–6
Win	3–3	Jun 2018	26th Internat. Nürnberger Versicherungs-ITF-Junior Tournament, Germany	Category G1	Clay	Yannik Steinegger	Filip Cristian Jianu   Tao Mu	6–3, 2–6, [10-7]
Win	4–3	Aug 2018	Oceania Closed Junior Championships, Fiji	Category G2	Hard	Ken Cavrak	Cihan Akay   Nikita Volonski	6–4, 6–3
Loss	4–4	Oct 2018	Youth Olympic Games, Argentina	Category GA	Clay	Adrian Andreev	Sebastián Báez   Facundo Diaz Acosta	4–6, 4–6
Win	5–4	Nov 2018	2018 Seogwipo Asia/Oceania Closed Junior Championships, South Korea	Category G1	Hard	Chen Dong	Stefan Storch   Dane Sweeny	6–3, 6–4
Win	6–4	Jan 2019	J1 Traralgon, Australia	Category J1	Hard	Otto Virtanen	Jiří Lehečka   Wojciech Marek	6–0, 6–3

Hijikata's record against players who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who are active in boldface. Only ATP Tour main draw matches and Davis Cup matches are considered:

Player	Record	Win %	Hard	Clay	Grass	Last match
Number 1 ranked players
Daniil Medvedev	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (4–6, 3–6) at 2022 Los Cabos
Rafael Nadal	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (6–4, 2–6, 3–6, 3–6) at 2022 US Open
Number 3 ranked players
Grigor Dimitrov	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (1–6, 4–6) at 2024 Brisbane
Stefanos Tsitsipas	0–2	0%	0–2	–	–	Lost (2–6, 4–6) at 2023 Shanghai
Number 5 ranked players
Taylor Fritz	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (3–6, 3–6) at 2024 Delray Beach
Number 8 ranked players
John Isner	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (2–6, 6–7(4–7)) at 2023 Los Cabos
Number 10 ranked players
Lucas Pouille	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (7–5, 1–6, 3–6) at 2024 Indian Wells
Frances Tiafoe	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (4–6, 1–6, 4–6) at 2023 US Open
Denis Shapovalov	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (6–2, 4–6, 3–6) at 2023 Adelaide 1
Total	0–10	0%	0–10 (0%)	0–0 ( – )	0–0 ( – )	* Statistics correct as of 17 March 2024[update].

In 2018 and 2019, Hijikata won the Newcombe Medal for Male Junior Athlete of the Year.