Rinky Hijikata and Masamichi Imamura will square off in the 2nd round of the Sydney Challenger for the 2nd time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Thursday at 12:00 pm on COURT 2. In the following lines 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.
Rinky Hijikata -> 1.23
Masamichi Imamura -> 3.82
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Prediction and head to head Rinky Hijikata vs. Masamichi Imamura
This will be the 2nd time that Rinky Hijikata and Masamichi Imamura clash against each other. The head to head is 1-0 for Hijikata (see full H2H stats), 1-0 on hard.
The last time that they played, Hijikata won 5-7 6-4 6-4 in the semifinal in the Playford Challenger back in October 2024.
Rinky Hijikata
33 - 32win/loss
74
62
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 36-33 | 29-21 | 1-6 | 1-1 | 5-5 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 46-34 | 37-23 | 0-3 | 0-2 | 9-6 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 53-29 | 37-19 | 2-2 | 10-6 | 4-2 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 41-13 | 31-9 | 9-3 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2020 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 76, Rinky got to the 2nd round after beating Ryuki Matsuda 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 6-4.
In the 1st round, Rinky defeated Matsuda (7-65 6-75 6-4). During the match, Hijikata scored 126 points vs Matsuda’s 117. The Australian was pretty aggressive to blast 56 winners.
Talking about the service games, Hijikata bagged 8 aces and he committed only 5 double faults. Overall, Rinky Hijikata was extremely effective on serve to win 73% (56/77) of his 1st serve and 58% (25/43) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Hijikata broke Matsuda twice after converting 20% of his break points (2/10).
Hijikata has a solid record in the last 8 years having won 60% of his matches (198-130). 26-20 on hard in 2024. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this event, Hijikata has a compiled147-82 record in the last 8 years on hard.
His best result of the current season was winning the title the Playford Challenger where he defeated Yuta Shimizu in the final 6-4 7-6(4).
Hijikata has an aggregate 33-32 win-loss record in 2024, 26-20 on hard (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Sydney Challenger
Masamichi Imamura
54 - 24win/loss
351
351
| Year | Total | Hard | Clay | I.hard | Grass | Carpet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 55-27 | 47-23 | 2-1 | 6-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2023 | 4-5 | 4-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2022 | 39-26 | 36-23 | 3-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2021 | 24-15 | 24-15 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 2020 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Ranked no. 360 (career-high), the Japanese reached the 2nd round after defeating Hayden Jones 6-3 7-6(3).
In the 1st round, Imamura had a good straight sets win against Jones (6-3 7-63). During the match Imamura scored 76 points vs Jones’s 65. Imamura was quite aggressive to blast 25 winners.
About the serving games, Imamura scored 2 aces and he was pretty consistent in conceding no double faults for the entire match. Overall, Masamichi Imamura was very effective on serve to win 78% (25/32) of his 1st serve and 63% (17/27) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Imamura broke Jones 3 times after converting 30% of his break points (3/10).
The Japanese’s best result of the current year was reaching the final in M15 Kashiwa,M25 Changwon,M15 Tokyo,M25 Roehampton and M25 Takasaki.
Masamichi has a compiled 54-24 win-loss record in 2024, 47-21 on hard (See FULL STATS).
Previously in the Sydney Challenger
The Japanese has never competed in this tournament before.
H2H Performance in the tournament
Matches, sets, games and points
| Points | Hijikata | Imamura |
|---|---|---|
| Match played | 1 | 1 |
| Tot Set | 3 | 2 |
| Tot Games | 36 | 22 |
| Pts | 126-117 | 76-65 |
| Total Points | 243 | 141 |
| Winners | 56 | 25 |
| %Winners | 44% | 33% |
Both Hijikata and Imamura played 1 match. At the moment, Rinky Hijikata lost 1 set while Masamichi Imamura hasn’t surrendered a set so far. Hijikata has played 1 set more than Imamura (3 vs 2). Therefore, Hijikata played 14 games more than Imamura. The Australian scored 56 winners (44% of the total points). On the other side, Masamichi blasted 25 winners (33%).
Serve Performance
| Serve | Hijikata | Imamura |
|---|---|---|
| Aces | 8 | 2 |
| Avg per match | 8 | 2 |
| 1st in | 77/120 | 32/59 |
| %1st in | 64% | 54% |
| 1st pts | 56/77 | 25/32 |
| %1st pts | 73% | 78% |
| 2nd pts | 25/43 | 17/27 |
| %2nd pts | 58% | 63% |
Hijikata bagged 8 aces . Imamura fired 2 aces . Hijikata won 73% points on his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 58% of the points. On the other side, Imamura won 78% of the points behind his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 63% of the points.
How they played the important points
| Breaks | Hijikata | Imamura |
|---|---|---|
| Won | 2 | 3 |
| Converted | 2/10 | 3/10 |
| % Converted | 20% | 30% |
| Conceded | 7 | 1 |
| Saved | 6 | 0 |
| % Saved | 86% | 0% |
| Times Broken | 1 | 1 |
Hijikata broke his opponent twice with a 20% conversion rate. Rinky surrendered his serve once and he saved 86% of the break points that he conceded. The Japanese broke his opponent 3 times with a 30% conversion rate. The Japanese conceded his serve once and he saved 0% of the break points that he conceded.
| Hijikata | |||
| R1 Matsuda | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 7-65 6-75 6-4 | ||
| Tot Set | 3 | 3 | |
| Tot Games | 36 | 36 | |
| pts | 126-117 | 126-117 | |
| Total points | 243 | 243 | |
| Winners | 56 | 56 | |
| %Winners | 44% | 44% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 8 | 8 | |
| Double Faults | 5 | 5 | |
| 1st in | 77/120 | 77/120 | |
| % 1st in | 64% | 64% | |
| 1st pts | 56/77 | 56/77 | |
| % 1st pts | 73% | 73% | |
| 2nd pts | 25/43 | 25/43 | |
| % 2nd pts | 58% | 58% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 2 | 2 | |
| Converted | 2/10 | 2/10 | |
| Converted % | 20% | 20% | |
| Conceded | 7 | 7 | |
| Saved | 6/7 | 6 | |
| Saved % | 86% | 86% | |
| Times Broken | 1 | 1 | |
| Imamura | |||
| R1 Jones | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Score | 6-3 7-63 | ||
| Tot Set | 2 | 2 | |
| Tot Games | 22 | 22 | |
| pts | 76-65 | 76-65 | |
| Total points | 141 | 141 | |
| Winners | 25 | 25 | |
| %Winners | 33% | 33% | |
| SERVE | |||
| Aces | 2 | 2 | |
| Double Faults | 0 | 0 | |
| 1st in | 32/59 | 32/59 | |
| % 1st in | 54% | 54% | |
| 1st pts | 25/32 | 25/32 | |
| % 1st pts | 78% | 78% | |
| 2nd pts | 17/27 | 17/27 | |
| % 2nd pts | 63% | 63% | |
| Breaks | |||
| Won | 3 | 3 | |
| Converted | 3/10 | 3/10 | |
| Converted % | 30% | 30% | |
| Conceded | 1 | 1 | |
| Saved | 0/1 | 0 | |
| Saved % | 0% | 0% | |
| Times Broken | 1 | 1 | |
Tennis Scores in Sydney Challenger
- Omar JasikaJasika – Blake EllisEllis (7-5 6-1) – Stats, scores, rankings
- Hikaru ShiraishiShiraishi – Marc PolmansPolmans (3-6 6-1 6-2) – Stats, scores, rankings
- Tristan SchoolkateSchoolkate – Tibo ColsonColson (6-2 6-3) – Stats, scores, rankings
Upcoming matches in the draw
- Blake MottMott – Yuta ShimizuShimizu (0-1) – H2H and prediction
- Omar JasikaJasika – Tristan SchoolkateSchoolkate (1-4) – H2H and prediction
- Ajeet RaiRai – Yuki MochizukiMochizuki (0-1) – H2H and prediction
- Rinky HijikataHijikata – Masamichi ImamuraImamura (1-0) – H2H and prediction
- Emile HuddHudd – Dane SweenySweeny (0-0) – H2H and prediction