BUENOS AIRES 2018: Australia’s sole tennis representative Rinky Hijikata has won silver in the men’s doubles alongside his Bulgarian partner Adrian Andreev at Buenos Aires 2018.
Hijikata and Andreev took on Facundo Diaz Acosta and Sebastian Baez of Argentina. Diaz Acosta won silver the day before in the men’s singles tournament, while his teammate Baez is ranked second in the World Junior rankings and made it through to the Youth Olympic quarterfinals.
Hijikata’s teammate Andreev placed fourth in the singles competition, however the Aussie/Bulgarian duo went in to the match as the clear underdogs and took on the challenge of the show court in front of a fully-packed, screaming home crowd.
The Argentinians took an early lead in the first set, putting three quick games on the board before Hijikata and Andreev started to fire up. They finally broke the Argentinian streak, but it wasn’t enough to rein in the lead for the first set and the locals claimed the 6-4 win.
The teams were holding serve for the first three games of the second set before the Argentinians managed to break the international team and take the lead. With Hijikata making impressive ground all over the court, the pair were unable to break back, and Argentina claimed the gold medal at the 66 minute mark in straight sets (6-4, 6-4).
Hijiktata said playing the local team on the centre court in the final was a moment he’ll never forget.
“Going into the match I was pretty excited to play on that court. I’ve been watching the Argentinians play on there all week and I wanted a crack because the atmosphere is just amazing. The locals do a great job at getting behind their players,” he said.
“It was a great experience today, not the result we wanted, but I think this will hold us in good stead for the future.”
Hijiktata was knocked out in the first round of the men’s single competition and felt today’s medal-performance was a redeeming moment.
“Going into this week I really wanted to hold a medal at the end and now I’ve got one it feels pretty unreal. Just being able to play for Australia is something I cherish so much,” Hijikata said.
“If I had to pick a highlight of the tournament, it’s either the match where we won the semi-final and secured the medal, or today playing on centre court.”
Hijikata and Andreev had never played a doubles match together prior to this week. They were randomly paired at the start of the competition and had no idea if they would even click on the court.
Fortunately, it was a vey successful pairing according to Bulgarian’s Andreev.
“Rinky has really positive energy on the court, he’s a really good partner to play with because he has a really good doubles game and he’s really fun to play with,” Andreev said.
“I think it was really good the first time we played together. I think our styles matched on the court so I think it worked really well.”
Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au
