Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas, the second seed in qualifying, defeated Australian Rinky Hijikata in the second round of qualifying for the Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo. The match finished 6-4, 6-3, according to api.tennis. The ATP 500 tournament is played on hard courts and has a prize fund of $2.4 million. According to rank.tennis, Tsitsipas is ranked 43rd with 1180 points, while Hijikata sits 82nd with 711 points.
The match was decided in straight sets. Tsitsipas won the first 6-4 and took the second 6-3, with the margin slightly wider than in the opening set. The final result was 2-0 in sets in favor of the Greek.
Head-to-head 3-0
This was the third meeting between the two players, and Tsitsipas has won all three. In 2023 he beat Hijikata at the Australian Open 6-3, 6-0, 6-2, and later got the better of him in Shanghai 6-4, 6-2. The Tokyo match continued the trend, with the Australian yet to take a single set off the Greek across all three encounters.
At the US Open, Tsitsipas reached the fourth round. In each of his three victories there, he dropped the first set before fighting back: against Arthur Fils (4-6, 7-6, 6-1, 6-4), Lloyd Harris (6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 6-4) and Jiří Lehečka (2-6, 6-1, 7-6, 6-1). He then lost to Ben Shelton 2-6, 3-6, 4-6. Hijikata was beaten in the first round of the US Open by Felix Auger-Aliassime 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7. Before that, in Winston-Salem, he defeated Darwin Blanch and Rafael Collignon before falling to Benjamin Bonzi 1-6, 1-6.