‘No ceiling’: Hijikata aims high after taming Djokovic

Rinky Hijikata is placing no limits on what he can accomplish after soaring to a fresh career-high ranking following a seismic victory over Novak Djokovic.

Hijikata has risen to world No.59 after joining Alex de Minaur, Nick Kyrgios and Lleyton Hewitt as only the fourth Australian to conquer the mighty Serb and further enhance his career-best season.

Hijikata’s victory en route to the Paris Masters quarter-finals was the 25-year-old’s fourth top-20 scalp of 2026, having never previously claimed one.

Launching his summer at the United Cup mixed teams’ event, Hijikata is now certain to start 2027 as the new Australian No.2 behind only de Minaur following his 24-spot rankings leap.

But numbers can’t buy the belief Hijikata has from taking down the 24-times grand slam champion and 10-times Australian Open winner.

“I don’t really want to put a ceiling on where I can get to,” he said after being named alongside rising women’s star Talia Gibson in Australia’s United Cup squad for the mixed teams’ event in Perth and his home city of Sydney starting on January 1.

“I just want to keep on trying to improve every day and, hopefully at the end of my career, I can know that I maximised everything I had and didn’t leave any stones unturned.”

Nominating de Minaur and former US Open finalist Kei Nishikori as his playing idols for their similarly small stature but huge hearts, Hijikata has previously shown glimpses of his potential.

He made a charge to the last 16 of the 2023 US Open without really kicking on – until this year.

He reckons staying aggressive under pressure, as he did against Djokovic, is probably the key to sustaining his level and continuing to climb the ranks and hopefully crack the world’s top 32 and gain a grand slam seeding.

“Especially in conditions like it was in Paris, where I was playing quite quick and it was conducive to playing positive tennis and coming forward to the net,” Hijikata said.

“I watched a couple of my matches back and felt like I was being a little bit passive and waiting for things to happen under pressure.

“So the big focus the last few weeks was trying to take the game on and trying to really impose my game on my opponent, and I felt like I did that well.

“So that’s something that I’d love to keep doing moving forward.”

After helping Australia to a Davis Cup play-off win over Poland in September, Hijikata is pumped to be making his United Cup debut.

“Putting on the green and gold is probably the biggest honour you can have as an Australian athlete,” he said.

“Any chance you get to do that is is special, so I’m really looking forward to it. Another chance to play in front of a home crowd and it’s the best time of the year for us Aussie tennis players, so it should be a lot of fun and hopefully we do well.”

Officials on Thursday revealed women’s grand slam champions Coco Gauff, Emma Raducanu and Wimbledon titleholder Linda Noskova as the first international superstars to commit to the 2027 United Cup.