Rinky Hijikata and Thanasi Kokkinakis will face off in the final of the Sydney Challenger for the 3^rd time in their career. They are scheduled to compete on Sunday at 2:30 pm on COURT 2. In this post, we analyze their head to head performance and prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Thanasi Kokkinakis who should win in 2 sets.

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

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Prediction and head to head Rinky Hijikata vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis

This will be the 3^rd time that Rinky Hijikata and Thanasi Kokkinakis play each other. The head to head is 1-1 (see full H2H stats), 1-0 on hard.

The last time that they locked horns, Kokkinakis won 6-4 7-5 in the 1^st round in the Bordeaux Challenger back in May 2024.

Rinky Hijikata

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

In the semifinal, Rinky had a good straight sets win against Shimizu (7-6¹ 6-3). During the match, Hijikata scored 77 points vs Shimizu’s 62. The Australian was very aggressive to blast 41 winners.

Regarding the service games, Hijikata made 4 aces and he committed only 1 double fault. Overall, Rinky Hijikata was pretty efficient on serve to win 73% (41/56) of his 1st serve and 52% (11/21) on the second serve. However, this didn’t prevent his to concede the serve once. Rinky broke Shimizu twice after converting 67% of his break points (2/3).

Overall Performance in this tournament

Rinky has conceded 1 set in this tournament to win 54% of the points he played.

Hijikata has a solid record in the last 8 years having won 61% of his matches (201-130). 29-20 on hard in 2024. Regarding his performance on the same surface of this tournament, Hijikata has an aggregate150-82 win-loss record in the last 8 years on hard.

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

Hijikata has an aggregate 36-32 win-loss record in 2024, 29-20 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Sydney Challenger

Thanasi Kokkinakis

Ranked no. 87, Kokkinakis got to the final after defeating Christian Langmo 6-3 6-4, Philip Sekulic 6-2 7-6(4), Hikaru Shiraishi 6-2 6-1 and Tristan Schoolkate 6-4 7-6(3).

In the semifinal, The Australian had a good straight sets win against Schoolkate (6-4 7-6³). During the match Kokkinakis scored 71 points vs Schoolkate’s 58. Kokkinakis was exceptionally aggressive to blast 39 winners.

Talking about serving, Kokkinakis made 12 aces and he committed only 1 double fault for the entire match. Thanasi Kokkinakis lost the serve twice and he saved 2 break points. Furthermore, Kokkinakis put 75% of his first serves in, winning 83% (39/47) of the points behind his 1st serve and 50% (8/16) on the 2nd serve. Kokkinakis broke Schoolkate 3 times after converting 50% of his break points (3/6).

Overall Performance in this tournament

Thanasi hasn’t dropped yet a set in the tournament to win 58% of the points he played.

His best result of the current year was winning the title the Sarasota Challenger where he defeated Zizou Bergs in the final 6-3 1-6 6-0.

Thanasi has a compiled 33-20 win-loss record in 2024, 18-12 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in the Sydney Challenger

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

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Hijikata	Kokkinakis
Match played	4	4
Tot Set	9	8
Tot Games	96	78
Pts	334-283	280-206
Total Points	617	486
Winners	145	119
%Winners	43%	43%

Both Hijikata and Kokkinakis played 4 matches. At the moment, Rinky Hijikata dropped 1 set while Thanasi Kokkinakis hasn’t conceded a set so far. Hijikata has played 1 set more than Kokkinakis (9 vs 8). Therefore, Hijikata played 18 games more than Kokkinakis. The Australian scored 145 winners (43% of the total points). On the other side, Kokkinakis managed to score 119 winners (43%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Hijikata	Kokkinakis
Aces	22	50
Avg per match	5.5	12.5
1st in	200/315	143/218
%1st in	63%	66%
1st pts	145/200	119/143
%1st pts	73%	83%
2nd pts	68/115	42/75
%2nd pts	59%	56%

Hijikata scored 22 aces (5.5 per match). Kokkinakis bagged 50 aces (12.5 per match). Hijikata won 73% points behind his first serve. He pretty effective on his second serve to win 59% of the points. On the other side, Kokkinakis won 83% of the points on his first serve. He had a solid display on his second serve to win 56% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Hijikata	Kokkinakis
Won	11	14
Converted	11/27	14/41
% Converted	41%	34%
Conceded	17	11
Saved	13	7
% Saved	76%	64%
Times Broken	4	4

The Australian broke his opponents 11 times with a 41% conversion rate. Hijikata lost his serve 4 times and he saved 76% of the break points that he conceded. Thanasi broke his opponents 14 times with a 34% conversion rate. Kokkinakis conceded his serve 4 times and he saved 64% of the break points that he conceded.

Hijikata
	R1 Matsuda	R2 Imamura	1/4 Hudd	1/2 Shimizu	Total
Score	7-65 6-75 6-4	6-3 7-63	6-3 6-1	7-61 6-3
Tot Set	3	2	2	2	9
Tot Games	36	22	16	22	96
pts	126-117	70-59	61-45	77-62	334-283
Total points	243	129	106	139	617
Winners	56	27	21	41	145
%Winners	44%	39%	34%	53%	43%
SERVE
Aces	8	6	4	4	22
Double Faults	5	2	1	1	9
1st in	77/120	35/66	32/52	56/77	200/315
% 1st in	64%	53%	62%	73%	63%
1st pts	56/77	27/35	21/32	41/56	145/200
% 1st pts	73%	77%	66%	73%	73%
2nd pts	25/43	20/31	12/20	11/21	68/115
% 2nd pts	58%	65%	60%	52%	59%
Breaks
Won	2	2	5	2	11
Converted	2/10	2/3	5/11	2/3	11/27
Converted %	20%	67%	45%	67%	41%
Conceded	7	1	3	6	17
Saved	6/7	0/1	2/3	5/6	13
Saved %	86%	0%	67%	83%	59%
Times Broken	1	1	1	1	4

Kokkinakis
	R1 Langmo	R2 Sekulic	1/4 Shiraishi	1/2 Schoolkate	Total
Score	6-3 6-4	6-2 7-64	6-2 6-1	6-4 7-63
Tot Set	2	2	2	2	8
Tot Games	19	21	15	23	78
pts	67-48	88-72	54-28	71-58	280-206
Total points	115	160	82	129	486
Winners	29	33	18	39	119
%Winners	43%	38%	33%	55%	43%
SERVE
Aces	13	15	10	12	50
Double Faults	2	3	0	1	6
1st in	32/48	43/74	21/33	47/63	143/218
% 1st in	67%	58%	64%	75%	66%
1st pts	29/32	33/43	18/21	39/47	119/143
% 1st pts	91%	77%	86%	83%	83%
2nd pts	11/16	17/31	6/12	8/16	42/75
% 2nd pts	69%	55%	50%	50%	56%
Breaks
Won	2	3	6	3	14
Converted	2/12	3/14	6/9	3/6	14/41
Converted %	17%	21%	67%	50%	34%
Conceded	0	6	1	4	11
Saved	0/0	5/6	0/1	2/4	7
Saved %	–	83%	0%	50%	33%
Times Broken	0	1	1	2	4

Tennis Scores in Sydney Challenger

• Blake Ellis/Thomas FancuttEllis/Thomas Fancutt – Blake Bayldon/Mats HermansBayldon/Mats Hermans (7-5 7-6⁴) – Stats, scores, rankings

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Rinky HijikataHijikata – Thanasi KokkinakisKokkinakis (1-1) – H2H and prediction