Hijikata Roars Back Again to Reach First Masters Quarter-Final in Paris

Rinky Hijikata is making a habit of this. A day after the biggest win of his life, the 25-year-old Australian qualifier did it all over again in Paris, coming from a set down to beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry 2-6 6-3 7-5 and reach the first Masters 1000 quarter-final of his career. It is the second time in as many matches that Hijikata has lost the opening set and refused to go away. On Tuesday he dropped the first set 6-2 to Novak Djokovic and still found a way past the 24-time Grand Slam champion. On Thursday, against the Argentine world No.31, the script looked worryingly familiar. Etcheverry, fresh from knocking out Alex de Minaur in the previous round, took the first set in just 26 minutes, and their only previous meeting — a 6-1 6-4 win for the Argentine in Hangzhou last year — suggested a swift passage was coming. Hijikata had other ideas. He survived a break point in a 12-minute opening game of the second set, broke in the fourth game, and held his nerve to take it in 43 minutes and force a decider. The third set went with serve until 5-5, when the Australian broke Etcheverry and stepped up to serve for the match. He opened with an ace. Etcheverry levelled to 15-all, but Hijikata won the next three points, sealing victory with an emphatic forehand smash across court before celebrating joyously. "I'm really proud, I just feel like I'm back where I belong," Hijikata said afterwards. The run is already the story of the tournament's second week. Hijikata began the event in qualifying, ranked No.83 in the world. He has now beaten five higher-ranked players, and by reaching the last eight he has climbed into the world's top 60 for the first time. Win again and he would rise to No.48. He is the ninth active Australian to reach an ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final. His Davis Cup captain, former world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt, was watching on and could barely hide his delight. "Rinky — awesome. Rinky's been great in my Davis Cup team. He's a great kid," Hewitt said. "This year, he's played some of the best tennis that I've ever seen him play. He's exciting to watch. I think he just passed James Duckworth now as the second-ranked Australian male player too, so he's on the way up which is a good thing." Television pundit Ryan Harrison, the American former top-40 player, was struck by the change in the usually mild-mannered Sydneysider. "He is a guy who is typically mild-mannered, he's as fired up as I've ever seen him before," Harrison said. Next up is local favourite Luca Van Assche, the world No.47, who beat Lorenzo Musetti 7-5 3-6 6-4 in a seesaw epic that had the Paris crowd gripped. Van Assche came back from two break points down at 3-4 in the third, winning 12 of the next 13 points to seal it. Hijikata has never played the Frenchman, and he will have to deal with a home crowd that roared Van Assche home. But after this week, nothing about Hijikata's run should surprise anyone anymore.