It has been a tough road in Paris for Rinky Hijikata but the Sydneysider is in line to be rewarded for a series of surprise wins.
The world No. 83 beat two higher-ranked players in qualifying to reach the main draw of the Paris Masters and he has started the ATP 1000 tournament with a bang, KO'ing world No.21 Luciano Darderi 6-2 6-2.
Next up should be 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic, if the Serb sees off Valentin Vacherot, winner of the ATP 500 in Basle on Sunday, in Tuesday's first round tie. Come through that and Hijikata is slated to meet Australian No.1 Alex de Minaur in the last 16.
De Minaur has work to do himself first, and needs to settle quickly after his impressive run to Sunday's final in Vienna, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz. Given a first round bye the No.8 seed will face the victor of Andrey Rublev's opening tie with Tomas Etcheverry.
But the focus on Monday was on Hijikata, who will overtake James Duckworth to become Australian No.2 if he makes the third round.
After losing his first two matches against Darderi, at Roland Garros in 2024 and the US Open in 2025, Hijikata has beaten the Italian three times this year despite the latter's ranking hovering around the top-20 throughout.
Hijikata arrived in France off the back of four straight main draw losses dating back to September, but victories over Jaime Faria (ranked 57) and Kit Kopriva (62) in qualifying had boosted the 25-year-old's confidence.
He broke immediately, then held for 2-0. But Darderi broke back to be 2-2. The key game was the fifth which lasted 18 minutes with five deuces before Hijikata claimed it on his fourth break point.
Hijikata won the next six games to take the first set and command of the second. While Darderi got one break back Hijikata immediately restored his advantage before going on to take the set in 25 minutes and the match in one hour, three minutes.
Hijikata has lost both his previous meetings with Djokovic, but the brilliant Serb, No.1 for a record 428 weeks in his heyday, is now 39 years old and ranked 10th in the world. Nevertheless, he is a seven-times winner in Paris.
Elsewhere in the French capital the only seed in action on the opening day was Rafael Jodar (9) who needed little time to see off Chile's Alejandro Tabilo 6-2 6-3.
There were also wins for Cameron Norrie, Lorenzo Musetti, Casper Ruud, Ignacio Buse, Mattia Belluci, Daniel Merida and Luca van Assche.
