Rinky Hijikata

Rinky Hijikata (リンキー・ヒジカタ) is an Australian professional tennis player.

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.

Hijikata was born in Sydney, Australia to Japanese immigrant parents.

He began playing tennis at age three or four.

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 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 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.

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.

He became the youngest Australian to win a Challenger title since 2018, when the-then 19-year-old Alexei Popyrin won in Jinan, China.

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.

Hijikata played college tennis for North Carolina Tar Heels men's tennis from 2019 to 2021.

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.

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.