Rinky Hijikata and Yuta Shimizu will fight against each other in the final of the Playford Challenger for the 3^rd time in their career. They are scheduled to play on Sunday at 11:00 am on CENTRE COURT. In the following paragraphs, you can find the head to head analysis and prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Rinky Hijikata who should win in 2 sets.

As per the initial odds, Rinky Hijikata is the pick to win this match.
Rinky Hijikata -> 1.31
Yuta Shimizu -> 3.2

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Prediction and head to head Rinky Hijikata vs. Yuta Shimizu

This will be the 3^rd time that Rinky Hijikata and Yuta Shimizu square off. The head to head is 1-1 for Hijikata and Shimizu (see full H2H stats),but they are 1-1 on hard.

The last time that they played each other, Hijikata won 6-1 6-4 in the semifinal in the Burnie Challenger back in 2023.

Rinky Hijikata

Ranked no. 83, the Australian reached the final after beating Emile Hudd 7-6(4) 7-6(2), Dane Sweeny 6-4 6-3

, Omar Jasika 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3 and Masamichi Imamura 5-7 6-4 6-4.

In the semifinal against Imamura, The Australian recovered from a 1-set down deficit before winning (5-7 6-4 6-4). During the match, Hijikata scored 105 points vs Imamura’s 95. The Australian was very aggressive to blast 36 winners.

Regarding the service games, Hijikata scored 4 aces and he committed only 3 double faults. Rinky Hijikata lost the serve 5 times and he saved 5 break points. Furthermore, Hijikata put 57% of his first serves in, winning 69% (36/52) of the points behind his 1st serve and 48% (19/40) on the 2nd serve. Hijikata broke Imamura 6 times after converting 46% of his break points (6/13).

Overall Performance in this tournament

The Australian has surrendered 2 set in this tournament to conquer 53% of the points he played.

Hijikata has a solid record in the last 8 years having won 60% of his matches (196-130). 24-20 on hard in 2024. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this event, Hijikata has an aggregate145-82 win-loss record in the last 8 years on hard.

Hijikata’s best result of the current year was reaching the semifinal in the Playford Challenger.

Rinky has a compiled 31-32 win-loss record in 2024, 24-20 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Playford Challenger

Yuta Shimizu

Ranked no. 247, Yuta got to the final after defeating Blake Mott 6-3 7-5, Yuki Mochizuki 7-6(8) 6-2, Li Tu 6-4 6-2 and Marc Polmans 6-0 6-3.

In the semifinal, Shimizu had a good straight sets win against Polmans (6-0 6-3). During the match Shimizu scored 54 points vs Polmans’s 31. Yuta was very aggressive to blast 22 winners.

About the serving games, Shimizu recorded 5 aces and he committed only 1 double fault for the entire match. Yuta Shimizu lost the serve once and he saved 1 break points. Furthermore, Shimizu put 55% of his first serves in, winning 85% (22/26) of the points behind his 1st serve and 48% (10/21) on the 2nd serve. Shimizu broke Polmans 5 times after converting 63% of his break points (5/8).

Overall Performance in this tournament

The Japanese hasn’t dropped yet a set in the tournament to win 57% of the points he played.

The Japanese’s best result of the year was reaching the final in the Little Rock Challenger.

Shimizu has a compiled 29-25 win-loss record in 2024, 25-22 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Playford Challenger

Previously, his best result was reaching the quarter in 2023. See his history.

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Hijikata	Shimizu
Match played	4	4
Tot Set	10	8
Tot Games	111	75
Pts	381-343	264-196
Total Points	724	460
Winners	151	113
%Winners	40%	43%

Both Hijikata and Shimizu played 4 matches. At the moment, Rinky Hijikata surrendered 2 sets while Yuta Shimizu hasn’t lost a set so far. Hijikata has played 2 sets more than Shimizu (10 vs 8). Therefore, Hijikata played 36 games more than Shimizu. Rinky scored 151 winners (40% of the total points). On the other side, The Japanese blasted 113 winners (43%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Hijikata	Shimizu
Aces	15	14
Avg per match	3.8	3.5
1st in	209/356	150/237
%1st in	59%	63%
1st pts	151/209	113/150
%1st pts	72%	75%
2nd pts	68/147	44/87
%2nd pts	46%	51%

Hijikata blasted 15 aces (3.8 per match). Shimizu managed to score 14 aces (3.5 per match). Hijikata won 72% points behind his first serve. He was rock solid on his second serve to win 46% of the points. On the other side, Shimizu won 75% of the points behind his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 51% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Hijikata	Shimizu
Won	17	18
Converted	17/41	18/32
% Converted	41%	56%
Conceded	29	13
Saved	16	6
% Saved	55%	46%
Times Broken	13	7

Hijikata broke his opponents 17 times with a 41% conversion rate. Hijikata surrendered his serve 13 times and he saved 55% of the break points that he conceded. Shimizu broke his opponents 18 times with a 56% conversion rate. The Japanese conceded his serve 7 times and he saved 46% of the break points that he conceded.

Hijikata
	R1 Hudd	R2 Sweeny	1/4 Jasika	1/2 Imamura	Total
Score	7-64 7-62	6-4 6-3	5-7 7-64 6-3	5-7 6-4 6-4
Tot Set	2	2	3	3	10
Tot Games	26	19	34	32	111
pts	103-88	66-54	107-106	105-95	381-343
Total points	191	120	213	200	724
Winners	39	26	50	36	151
%Winners	38%	39%	47%	34%	40%
SERVE
Aces	3	4	4	4	15
Double Faults	7	2	4	3	16
1st in	54/95	36/61	67/108	52/92	209/356
% 1st in	57%	59%	62%	57%	59%
1st pts	39/54	26/36	50/67	36/52	151/209
% 1st pts	72%	72%	75%	69%	72%
2nd pts	20/41	11/25	18/41	19/40	68/147
% 2nd pts	49%	44%	44%	48%	46%
Breaks
Won	3	5	3	6	17
Converted	3/12	5/6	3/10	6/13	17/41
Converted %	25%	83%	30%	46%	41%
Conceded	6	6	7	10	29
Saved	3/6	4/6	4/7	5/10	16
Saved %	50%	67%	57%	50%	56%
Times Broken	3	2	3	5	13

Shimizu
	R1 Mott	R2 Mochizuki	1/4 Tu	1/2 Polmans	Total
Score	6-3 7-5	7-68 6-2	6-4 6-2	6-0 6-3
Tot Set	2	2	2	2	8
Tot Games	21	21	18	15	75
pts	71-54	77-62	62-49	54-31	264-196
Total points	125	139	111	85	460
Winners	38	27	26	22	113
%Winners	54%	35%	42%	41%	43%
SERVE
Aces	4	4	1	5	14
Double Faults	3	1	2	1	7
1st in	49/68	43/63	32/59	26/47	150/237
% 1st in	72%	68%	54%	55%	63%
1st pts	38/49	27/43	26/32	22/26	113/150
% 1st pts	78%	63%	81%	85%	75%
2nd pts	8/19	13/20	13/27	10/21	44/87
% 2nd pts	42%	65%	48%	48%	51%
Breaks
Won	4	5	4	5	18
Converted	4/8	5/10	4/6	5/8	18/32
Converted %	50%	50%	67%	63%	56%
Conceded	5	4	2	2	13
Saved	3/5	1/4	1/2	1/2	6
Saved %	60%	25%	50%	50%	46%
Times Broken	2	3	1	1	7

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Rinky HijikataHijikata – Yuta ShimizuShimizu (1-1) – H2H and prediction