Rinky Hijikata has snapped a four-match shedding streak and within the course of claimed his first ATP tour-level clay court docket victory.
After consecutive hardcourt defeats final month in Miami, Phoenix and Indian Wells, the 23-year-old Australian recorded an upset 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-2) win over fifth seed Chris Eubanks in seven minutes shy of two hours on court docket in Houston.
Currently ranked eightieth on the planet, Sydneysider Hijikata will subsequent play American world No.92 Brandon Nakashima, who was a 6-1 6-4 winner in opposition to Croatian Dude Ajdukovic.
“Just managed to get through there. It wasn’t looking good for a while,” Hijikata stated 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 simply glad that I sort of simply hung round lengthy sufficient and managed to give you a number of good factors after I needed to.
“(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.
“So I’m simply making an attempt to be taught as a lot as I can, attempt to adapt… I’m simply wanting ahead to the following one.”
American J.J. Wolf loved a 6-3 2-6 6-4 victory over Swiss qualifier Alexander Ritschard and Belgian Zizou Bergs beat native qualifier Patrick Kypson 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
