Tennis

Rinky Hijikata took on World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in Los Cabos in early August. © Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images. ATP Staff Aug 30, 2022.

“That’s something that I’ve taken to heart, and I guess every level that I step up, I try to back the work you’ve put in and all the hard work you’ve done in your training. “He came and chatted when we were on the Junior Davis Cup team and he just said that you’re never going to be able to play at a level if you don’t believe that you belong there. “I think it’s been a little bit of an up-and-down season,” said Hijikata. Relatively straightforward yet effective advice from Millman, and Hijikata is taking the same approach as he prepares for the biggest match of his career against Nadal. “I guess all the good players have a bit of an aura around them maybe and once you step out on-court, you don’t really know what to expect the first time. That was hard to beat, playing each other pretty much every Slam and the quality of their tennis was out of this world. “He’s an Aussie and the way he competed on the court, I thought was pretty cool. After qualifying for his first ATP Tour appearance at the ATP 250 event in Melbourne in January, Hijikata has worked his way up to his current career-high of No. Those two of mine have been idols of mine growing up and then obviously Novak as well, a bit more recently has been on a tear.” “It’s always been a dream of mine to go out there on the biggest stages of tennis and try to have a big crack at players like that. I want to go out there and represent everyone and try and give it my best shot.” “The first one was from my manager, Kelly [Wolf], and she said something along the lines of ‘Welcome to the Big House!’” Hijikata told ATPTour.com.