

What Time Will Novak Djokovic Play Against Rinky Hijikata?
Djokovic and Hijikata are on the Day 3 Schedule at Brisbane International Presented By Evie 2024 on Tuesday 31 December 2024. Lets breakdown the career, past stats and recent form of these players and predict who will get the victory.
Who Will Win In This Head-To-Head?
Novak Djokovic, a 37-year-old Serbian player, will be facing Australian player Rinky Hijikata for the first time. Djokovic is currently ranked as World No. 7 and has had an illustrious career with a career-high ranking of No. 1. He has an outstanding record of 1124 wins and 222 losses, with a total of 99 titles. In the Brisbane tournament, Djokovic has a record of 0-1, losing in the first round in 2009.
Djokovic holds numerous records in tennis. He is a 7-time Nitto ATP Finals champion, breaking records for the most weeks spent at No. 1 (428), most years ended at No. 1 (8), and most wins against Top 10 players (259). He has consistently been in the Top 5 in the ATP Rankings, except for 2017 (No. 12) and 2024 (No. 7). He currently holds the record for the most Grand Slam men’s singles titles in history, with a total of 24, including a record 10 Australian Open titles. He is also one of three men to hold all four Grand Slam championships simultaneously.
Furthermore, Djokovic is the only player to have won all 9 ATP Masters 1000 events multiple times, with a total of 40 titles. He holds the record for the most Grand Slam match wins in history (379) and is ranked third for the most men’s singles titles (99) and wins (1,124) in the Open Era. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, Djokovic won the men’s singles gold medal, joining Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal in achieving the Career Golden Slam.
Djokovic has impressive head-to-head records against his rivals, Roger Federer (27-23) and Nadal (31-29). He has also set multiple win streak records, including a 43-match winning streak on the ATP Tour (2010-11), a 31-match winning streak in ATP Masters 1000 events (2011), and a 30-match winning streak in Grand Slam matches (2015-16).
The match between Djokovic and Hijikata will take place at the Queensland Tennis Centre in Brisbane, Australia, from December 29, 2024, to January 5, 2025. Djokovic has an excellent opening-round record of 29-0 since his loss to Davidovich Fokina at the 2022 ATP Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo. In 2024, he had a 16-1 record against players ranked outside the Top 50, with his only loss coming against No. 123 Nardi in the ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells 3R. Djokovic previously played in Brisbane in 2009, where he lost in the first round to Gulbis.
On the other hand, Rinky Hijikata is a 23-year-old Australian player, currently ranked as World No. 73 with a career-high ranking of No. 62. He has a career record of 27 wins and 36 losses, with one semifinal appearance. In the Brisbane tournament, Hijikata has a record of 2-1, reaching the quarterfinals in 2024.
Hijikata gained recognition in the tennis world after breaking into the Top 100 when he reached the fourth round of the 2023 US Open as a wildcard. In August 2024, he achieved his career-high ranking of No. 62. At the 2023 ‘s-Hertogenbosch tournament, Hijikata made it to his first ATP Tour semifinals after rallying from a set down in three consecutive matches. He also had success in doubles, winning the Australian Open doubles title in 2023 with Kubler, defeating the top-seeded pair in the process. Additionally, Hijikata rallied from two sets down to win his first-ever Grand Slam main draw singles match against Hanfmann at the 2023 Australian Open. He has also won two Challenger singles titles in Australia.
Before turning pro, Hijikata played college tennis at the University of North Carolina, earning All-American honors as a sophomore. Although he has not yet secured a win against a Top 20 player (0-12 record), Hijikata had his best ATP Tour performance at the Brisbane tournament last year, reaching the quarterfinals. He defeated Kokkinakis and Machac before losing to the eventual champion, No. 14 Dimitrov.
The match between Djokovic and Hijikata will be played on Show Court 1.
My Conclusion / Prediction:
My pick is that Djokovic will win.
Matchstat.com has an Artificial Intelligence (Ai) prediction model that is trained on all professional ATP and WTA past matches.
To find out who our model thinks will win for Novak Djokovic vs Rinky Hijikata, have a look at the prediction here:
Matchstat.com Novak Djokovic vs Rinky Hijikata prediction.







