Rinky Hijikata kept his London run alive at Queen’s Club by qualifying for the main draw and then beating Alejandro Tabilo in straight sets in the opening round. That sends the Australian into a meeting with Jiri Lehecka, the second seed and the player who has already beaten him twice.
Hijikata did not arrive there the easy way. He had already won three matches in London before the main draw, then added a fourth victory in his opening match, giving him four wins in his last five matches and a place in the part of the draw that now asks for even more.
That is what makes this week matter. Queen’s Club is one of the clearest markers of the grass season before Wimbledon, and Hijikata has already shown he can handle the surface and the workload. He has not just survived one match in London; he has spent most of the week winning his way forward, one round at a time.
Lehecka is a tougher test than the names Hijikata has already cleared. The Czech player was made to work in his own opening match, dropping to 2-4 in the second set before closing out Majchrzak in two tight sets. The result confirmed the gap in ranking and expectation, but it did not erase the form Hijikata has brought into the draw.
That is the wrinkle in the story. Hijikata comes in with momentum, yet Lehecka leads 2-0 in their head-to-head meetings, which means the qualifier is now chasing a first breakthrough against a favorite who has already found answers to him before. If Hijikata extends the run, it would be one of the more useful early wins of the grass-court swing; if he does not, his week in London has still already changed the shape of the event.
