Hijikata ousts Eubanks for first clay ATP win in Houston

Rinky Hijikata walked on court Monday in Houston without a tour-level match on clay to his name. The Australian did not seem to mind.

Hijikata earned his first ATP Tour victory on the surface with a 7-6(4), 7-6(2) upset of fifth seed Christopher Eubanks. The No. 80 in the PIF ATP Rankings clawed through the two tie-breaks to reach the second round of the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship.

“Just managed to get through there. It wasn't looking good for a while,” Hijikata said in his on-court interview. “I think Chris didn't miss a first serve for a long, long time and I wasn't touching too many serves or making any. I'm just glad that I kind of just hung around long enough and managed to come up with a few good points when I had to.”

Tiebreak king in Houston 👏@rinky_23 is through to R2 after knocking out Eubanks 7-6(4) 7-6(2).@mensclaycourt | #USClay pic.twitter.com/1ls9ofYYc9

— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 2, 2024

The former University of North Carolina Tar Heel won 79 per cent of his first-serve points and only lost serve once according to Infosys ATP Stats. He never allowed his opponent’s booming serve to deter his focus in their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

“[I am] pretty resilient. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in clay-court tennis, especially when I feel like both of us haven't played too much on it,” Hijikata said. “So I'm just trying to learn as much as I can, try and adapt, and then you learn how to try playing on this as well as I can. I'm just looking forward to the next one.”

Hijikata will next play another American: 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF champion Brandon Nakashima.

The World No. 92 did not lose serve in his 6-1, 6-4 win against Croatian Dude Ajdukovic. Nakashima began the season outside the world’s Top 130, but is up to No. 88 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

In other action, J.J. Wolf earned his first tour-level win of the season against Swiss qualifier Alexander Ritschard 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 and Belgian Zizou Bergs defeated American qualifier Patrick Kypson 7-6(5), 6-3.