Four hours and 26 minutes: Aussie underdog Rinky Hijikata’s five-set victory over world number 128 Yannick Hanfmann on Monday night was the definition of an epic.
Of the whopping eight five-setters on the opening day of the Australian Open (including fellow Aussie John Millman’s own comeback win), Hijikata’s was the longest and the most remarkable.
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No other player fought back from losing the first two sets.
In the words of the Aussie world number 169, he was “struggling big time” and “pretty done” in the third set. On the ropes? The 21-year-old Aussie was halfway through them!
Against the odds, the Aussie wildcard – making his first Aus Open main draw appearance and just his second slam start – turned things around, roared on by a revved-up court eight crowd.
From 4-6 4-6 down, he claimed the third set 6-3, then sealed a 71-minute fourth set in a tie-break before somehow pulling off the magical victory 6-3 in the final set.
On court, he declared: “That was mental!”
By the time he got into the press conference room, his excitement had hardly waned.
“I mean, I don’t really know how to put it into words. Yeah, it was crazy out there. It’s definitely the craziest match I’ve ever played in my life.
“You know, I think, I don’t know, I was struggling big-time there. 2-0 sets down. I think break points down. Then I don’t really know how I got back into it.”
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With Nick Kyrgios and Ajla Tomljanovic – the top-ranked Australians in the men’s and women’s draws – both withdrawing from the tournament with injury, the fans decked out in green and gold need new heroes to get behind.
And on Monday night, the fans on that small outside court were as boisterous and bullish as any home hopeful could hope for – and Hijikata declared he wouldn’t have come close to victory without them.
“Yeah, it was crazy. I think I was pretty done there in the third, to be honest. I think I was pretty anxious going into the match, and I think that showed for the first two sets, you know. Yeah, I was really struggling, and I was just trying to find something, trying to find something.
“Then, yeah, once I finally got a little sniff, I think the crowd really just kind of picked me up and erupted. Yeah, then I just tried to run with it for as long as I could. You know, if I was going to go down, I was going to go down swinging and with the crowd behind me.”
Hijikata has enjoyed a whirlwind six months. His first grand slam main draw appearance came at the 2022 US Open, where he was handed a wildcard – based as much on his potential as the talent he had showed in the US college system.
His first-round opponent? Rafael Nadal. Welcome to the big time, Rinky!
Hijikata lost, but stunned plenty of fans when he managed to steal a set from the 22-time slam winner.
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Only a couple of weeks earlier, he had faced then-world number one Daniil Medvedev and dragged him into deep waters. No wonder the Aussie isn’t shying away from his brutal next opponent: world number four and three-time Aus Open semi-finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“I’m pumped. It’s the same thing when I said I played Daniil and same thing I said when I played Rafa. I’m very excited. I’m not going to shy away from these matches. These are the ones you dream of playing when you are a kid and why you work so hard.
“Yeah, I’m going to come out and try to play my game. I’m not going to leave any stone unturned. That’s for sure. I’m going to go out there and give it a massive crack, yeah.”
Monday delivered plenty of stunning Aussie upsets – none better than Hijikata’s. Kyrgios and Tomljanovic might be out, and with them any real chance of an Aussie going all the way to replicate Ash Barty’s glory in 2022. But that won’t stop the home hopes from giving it a ‘massive crack’.
No wonder the crowds are all-in.
