{"id":4257,"date":"2025-07-12T12:47:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T12:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/4257\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T12:47:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T12:47:04","slug":"hijikata-eyes-history-in-wimbledon-doubles-final-12-july-2025-all-news-news-and-features-news-and-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/4257\/","title":{"rendered":"Hijikata eyes history in Wimbledon doubles final | 12 July, 2025 | All News | News and Features | News and Events"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rinky Hijikata and David Pel look to put a cherry on top of their Cinderella run with a win in the gentlemen’s doubles final on Day 13 at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

London, UK, 12 July 2025 | Rhys de Deugd<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Rinky Hijikata and David Pel are one win away from becoming the first men\u2019s doubles pair in the Open Era to enter a Grand Slam draw as alternates and win the title.<\/p>\n

The unlikely Australian-Dutch combination have had an extraordinary journey to the Wimbledon final, where they will again go in as underdogs.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0if their run so far is anything to go by, they\u2019ve made a habit of doing the impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a last-minute pairing, I was scrambling to find a partner, and reached out to David and geez it\u2019s worked out pretty well so far,\u201d Hijikata told Stan Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWe\u2019re trying to enjoy ourselves as much as possible. Being at Wimbledon doesn\u2019t get much better and I\u2019m glad that we can stay until the last Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, their campaign was almost over before it begun in their first match as partners.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Australian-Dutch duo were down match points in the second set of their opening-round battle against Andre Goransson and Sem Verbeek, the latter who went on to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Katerina Siniakova.<\/p>\n

After saving those match points, they forced a deciding set \u2013 and once again stared down match points before pulling off a gutsy comeback win.<\/p>\n

It was a similar situation in the next contest, where they survived a tiebreak in the second set and match points in the deciding super tiebreak to progress to the third round.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to the semifinal against top-seeds\u00a0Marcelo Arevalo\u00a0and\u00a0Mate Pavic, and the underdog duo scored their biggest upset yet.<\/a>\u00a0Again facing match points, Hijikata and Pel clawed their way back from 9-7 down in the deciding tiebreak to pull off another miraculous victory.<\/p>\n

Now, they face No.5 seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash in the final \u2013 a British pair playing in front of a home crowd.<\/p>\n

Victory would be the icing on Wimbledon\u2019s proverbial strawberries-and-cream cake.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the result, Hijikata\u2019s fortnight has been one he will never forget. After scoring his maiden Wimbledon singles victory on Day 2, the 24-year-old went on to win his first doubles match at the venue and break new ground every step of the way.<\/p>\n

Ranked No.149 in the ATP doubles rankings before the tournament, the run to the final sees Hijikata projected to shoot into the world\u2019s top 60, which makes him the youngest player ranked that high.<\/p>\n

If Hijikata and Pel are to pull off another upset in the final, the Aussie will become the youngest active men\u2019s player to have won two Grand Slam doubles titles.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the last time an Australian won the Wimbledon men\u2019s doubles title with an non-Aussie partner was two decades ago, when Stephen Huss won the 2005 title alongside South African Wesley Moodie.<\/p>\n

In the Open Era, Australian legends have conquered the gentlemen\u2019s doubles at Wimbledon, with an Australian hoisting the trophy on 21 occasions.<\/p>\n

Yet none have done it from such an unlikely start as Hijikata.<\/p>\n

You can watch the gentlemen\u2019s doubles final live in Australia on the\u00a0Nine Network\u00a0and\u00a0Stan Sport\u00a0from 10pm AEST.<\/p>\n

Find your way to play:\u00a0Visit\u00a0play.tennis.com.au<\/a>\u00a0to hit the court and have some fun!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rinky Hijikata and David Pel look to put a cherry on top of their Cinderella run with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-4257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}