Rinky Hijikata and Yuta Shimizu will fight against each other in the semifinal of the Sydney Challenger for the 4^th time in their career. They are scheduled to play on Saturday at 1:00 pm on Court 2. 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 -> 1.35
Yuta Shimizu -> 2.99

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Prediction and head to head Rinky Hijikata vs. Yuta Shimizu

This will be the 4^th time that Rinky Hijikata and Yuta Shimizu play each other. The head to head is 2-1 for Hijikata (see full H2H stats), 2-1 on hard.

The last time that they played each other, Hijikata won 6-4 7-6(4) in the final in the Playford Challenger back in October 2024.

Rinky Hijikata

Ranked no. 76, Rinky reached the semifinal after defeating Ryuki Matsuda 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 6-4, Masamichi Imamura 6-3 7-6(3) and Emile Hudd 6-3 6-1.

In the quarter, Hijikata had a good straight sets win against Hudd (6-3 6-1). During the match, Hijikata scored 61 points vs Hudd’s 45. Hijikata was very aggressive to blast 21 winners.

Regarding the service games, Hijikata fired 4 aces and he committed only 1 double fault. Rinky Hijikata lost the serve once and he saved 2 break points. Furthermore, Hijikata put 62% of his first serves in, winning 66% (21/32) of the points behind his 1st serve and 60% (12/20) on the 2nd serve. Hijikata broke Hudd 5 times after converting 45% of his break points (5/11).

Overall Performance in this tournament

Rinky has dropped 1 set in this event to conquer 54% of the points he played.

Hijikata has a solid record in the last 8 years having won 61% of his matches (200-130). 28-20 on hard in 2024. Talking about his performance on the same surface of this tournament, Hijikata has an aggregate149-82 match record in the last 8 years on hard.

His best result of the current season was conquering the title the Playford Challenger where he defeated Yuta Shimizu in the final 6-4 7-6(4).

Hijikata has a composed 35-32 win-loss record in 2024, 28-20 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Sydney Challenger

Yuta Shimizu

Ranked no. 224, Shimizu reached the semifinal after beating Jacob Bradshaw 6-3 6-3, Blake Mott 6-1 5-7 6-3 and Ajeet Rai 6-1 6-4.

In the quarter, Shimizu had a good straight sets win against Rai (6-1 6-4). During the match Shimizu scored 60 points vs Rai’s 44. The Japanese was very aggressive to blast 27 winners.

Talking about serving, Shimizu scored just 1 ace during the entire match and he was extremely consistent in conceding no double faults for the entire match. Yuta Shimizu was exceptionally effective on serve to win 71% (27/38) of his 1st serve and 69% (9/13) on the second serve. This was the main reason for not conceding a single break during the match. The Japanese broke Rai 4 times after converting 57% of his break points (4/7).

Overall Performance in this tournament

Yuta has conceded 1 set in the tournament to win 56% of the points he played.

The Japanese’s best result of the current season was reaching the final in the Little Rock Challenger and the Playford Challenger.

Shimizu has a composed 32-26 win-loss record in 2024, 28-23 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Sydney Challenger

Previously, his best result was reaching the 2^nd round in 2022. See his history.

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Hijikata	Shimizu
Match played	3	3
Tot Set	7	7
Tot Games	74	63
Pts	257-221	227-181
Total Points	478	408
Winners	104	88
%Winners	40%	39%

Both Hijikata and Shimizu played 3 matches. Both players lost a set in the event. Rinky Hijikata surrendered 1 set, while Yuta Shimizu lost 1 set. Talking about their workload, Hijikata and Shimizu have played the same amount of sets 7. However, Hijikata played 11 games more than Shimizu. Hijikata scored 104 winners (40% of the total points). On the other side, Shimizu bagged 88 winners (39%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Hijikata	Shimizu
Aces	18	16
Avg per match	6	5.3
1st in	144/238	119/188
%1st in	61%	63%
1st pts	104/144	88/119
%1st pts	72%	74%
2nd pts	57/94	33/69
%2nd pts	61%	48%

Hijikata blasted 18 aces (6 per match). Shimizu scored 16 aces (5.3 per match). Hijikata won 72% points on his first serve. He very solid his second serve to win 61% of the points. On the other side, Shimizu won 74% of the points behind his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 48% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Hijikata	Shimizu
Won	9	16
Converted	9/24	16/34
% Converted	38%	47%
Conceded	11	17
Saved	8	11
% Saved	73%	65%
Times Broken	3	6

Rinky broke his opponents 9 times with a 38% conversion rate. Rinky conceded his serve 3 times and he saved 73% of the break points that he conceded. Shimizu broke his opponents 16 times with a 47% conversion rate. The Japanese conceded his serve 6 times and he saved 65% of the break points that he conceded.

Hijikata
	R1 Matsuda	R2 Imamura	1/4 Hudd	Total
Score	7-65 6-75 6-4	6-3 7-63	6-3 6-1
Tot Set	3	2	2	7
Tot Games	36	22	16	74
pts	126-117	70-59	61-45	257-221
Total points	243	129	106	478
Winners	56	27	21	104
%Winners	44%	39%	34%	40%
SERVE
Aces	8	6	4	18
Double Faults	5	2	1	8
1st in	77/120	35/66	32/52	144/238
% 1st in	64%	53%	62%	61%
1st pts	56/77	27/35	21/32	104/144
% 1st pts	73%	77%	66%	72%
2nd pts	25/43	20/31	12/20	57/94
% 2nd pts	58%	65%	60%	61%
Breaks
Won	2	2	5	9
Converted	2/10	2/3	5/11	9/24
Converted %	20%	67%	45%	38%
Conceded	7	1	3	11
Saved	6/7	0/1	2/3	8
Saved %	86%	0%	67%	51%
Times Broken	1	1	1	3

Shimizu
	R1 Bradshaw	R2 Mott	1/4 Rai	Total
Score	6-3 6-3	6-1 5-7 6-3	6-1 6-4
Tot Set	2	3	2	7
Tot Games	18	28	17	63
pts	72-59	95-78	60-44	227-181
Total points	131	173	104	408
Winners	26	35	27	88
%Winners	36%	37%	45%	39%
SERVE
Aces	5	10	1	16
Double Faults	1	2	0	3
1st in	32/57	49/80	38/51	119/188
% 1st in	56%	61%	75%	63%
1st pts	26/32	35/49	27/38	88/119
% 1st pts	81%	71%	71%	74%
2nd pts	9/25	15/31	9/13	33/69
% 2nd pts	36%	48%	69%	48%
Breaks
Won	5	7	4	16
Converted	5/13	7/14	4/7	16/34
Converted %	38%	50%	57%	47%
Conceded	5	8	4	17
Saved	3/5	4/8	4/4	11
Saved %	60%	50%	100%	70%
Times Broken	2	4	0	6

Tennis Scores in Sydney Challenger

• Blake Bayldon/Mats HermansBayldon/Mats Hermans – Kody Pearson/Joshua SheehyPearson/Joshua Sheehy (6-3 7-6³) – Stats, scores, rankings

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Rinky HijikataHijikata – Yuta ShimizuShimizu (2-1) – H2H and prediction
• Tristan SchoolkateSchoolkate – Thanasi KokkinakisKokkinakis (0-0) – H2H and prediction