{"id":50912,"date":"2026-08-14T05:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T05:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/50912\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T05:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T05:14:08","slug":"hijikata-rallies-to-beat-monfils-in-1st-round-of-cincinnati-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/50912\/","title":{"rendered":"Hijikata rallies to beat Monfils in 1st round of Cincinnati Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI (AP) \u2014 Australian Rinky Hijikata<\/a> rallied to beat Gael Monfils<\/a> 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 as first-round action got underway Thursday at the Cincinnati Open. <\/p>\n

It was the first ATP<\/a> win on hard courts for the 25-year-old Hijikata, who played collegiately at North Carolina. He will face Italian Luciano Darderi<\/a> in the second round. <\/p>\n

Monfils made his 14th and final appearance at the Cincinnati Open. The 39-year-old Frenchman has announced he’s retiring at the end of 2026. <\/p>\n

Monfils reached the Cincinnati quarterfinals in 2011 and upset third-ranked Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the second round in 2024. He received a standing ovation from the crowd following Thursday’s match. <\/p>\n

American Katie Volynets lost to Britain’s Katie Boulter, 5-7, 6-0, 6-4, to advance to face Linda Noskova<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jack Draper<\/a> fell 6-3, 7-5 to Martin Landaluce<\/a> in their first-ever meeting. Landaluce, who snapped a six-match losing streak, will face Matteo Arnaldi<\/a> in the second round. <\/p>\n

Draper, who achieved a career-high No. 4 ranking in June 2025, was playing in just his third tournament since May due to an arm injury. <\/p>\n

Cameron Norrie<\/a> rallied to beat Dino Prizmic<\/a>, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, to earn a date with top seed and third-ranked Alexander Zverev<\/a> in the second round.<\/p>\n

American Taylor Townsend defeated Camila Osorio<\/a>, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, advancing to face No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Cincinnati Open lost the world’s top-ranked players this week when Jannik Sinner<\/a> and Carlos Alcaraz withdrew due to injury. <\/p>\n

No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> is the top seed in Cincinnati while Iga Swiatek<\/a>, fresh off her win in Toronto on Thursday, is seeded seventh. <\/p>\n

Venus and Serena Williams<\/a> will make their first doubles appearance together since the 2022 US Open<\/a>. The doubles draw is Friday. <\/p>\n

___ See AP\u2019s full tennis coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI (AP) \u2014 Australian Rinky Hijikata rallied to beat Gael Monfils 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 as first-round action got…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[243,283,2427,271,2239,18995,261,899,219,1897,3535,3710,4435],"class_list":["post-50912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carlos-alcaraz","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-atp","tag-cameron-norrie","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-dino-prizmic","tag-event_recap","tag-gael-monfils","tag-jack-draper","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-luciano-darderi","tag-martin-landaluce","tag-matteo-arnaldi","tag-rinky-hijikata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}