Hijikata Wins Australian Open Men’s Doubles Title

by Matt Bowers

 

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—Former University of North Carolina All-America Rinky Hijikata completed an improbable, two-week run with partner Jason Kubler by winning the 2023 Australian Open men’s doubles championship on Sunday at Rod Laver Arena.

 

The pair began their run to the title as wildcard entries to the main draw field. On the way to the championship, they beat the tournament’s No. 6-seeded team in the second round, the top seed in the quarterfinals and the eighth seed in the semis. In their first event playing as a team, Hijikata and Kubler became just the second wildcard team to win the Australian Open doubles championship in the Open era.

 

Hijikata served as he and Kubler won the final two points in a second-set tiebreaker to win the championship over Hugo Nys of France and Jan Zeilinski of Poland, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).

 

“I think we were just happy to be in the draw, to be honest,” Hijikat said afterward. “We looked at our draw, we were like, ‘Geez, if we could win one match or so, that would be a pretty good effort.’ It’s been a ridiculous two weeks. I mean, I can’t really put it into words. Yeah, it’s been an absolute blast. I can’t really believe this just happened.”

 

Hijikata is the second former UNC player to win a Grand Slam title, joining Don Johnson, who won a Wimbledon men’s doubles championship in 2001 and a Wimbledon mixed doubles title in 2000. Both Johnson and Hijikata played at Carolina under the tutelage of 30^th-year head coach Sam Paul.

 

The 21-year-old Hijikata played in Chapel Hill in 2020 and 2021. He helped Carolina win the 2021 ITA Team Indoor National Championship and earned All-America honors in singles that spring as a sophomore before turning pro. He was making just his second overall appearance in a doubles Grand Slam event.

 

“I think doubles is such a massive part of college tennis,” Hijikata said. “You do a lot of kind of work around the doubles game. Especially at North Carolina, we had great coaches, Coach Paul and Tripp [Phillips], who made the semifinals of the US Open doubles. To have someone like that, be able to learn from them, yeah, it’s second to none.

 

Hijikata and…