In another strong day for Australian players on grass, Alex de Minaur and Rinky Hijikata both posted straight-sets victories to progress to the second round at London’s Queen’s Club.
De Minaur won his first match at the venue since reaching the final in 2023, overcoming a patchy start to defeat Gabriel Diallo to maintain his promising pre-Wimbledon preparation.
Hijikata, a qualifier, won his third consecutive match on the club’s lawns thanks to a 6-2 6-4 win against Chile's Alejandro Tabilo.
READ MORE: Gibson, Preston power through in Nottingham
Hijikata will next play No.2 seed Jiri Lehecka who defeated Poland's Kamil Majchrzak, the man who defeated De Minaur in the ‘s-Hertogenbosch final in the Netherlands on Sunday.
And with his latest win, Hijikata returns to the top 100 in the ATP live rankings, soaring 12 places to world No.92.
The 25-year-old now boasts an impressive 6-2 win-loss record on grass since the beginning of June.
For De Minaur, first-round defeats to Lehecka and Lorenzo Musetti the past two years at Queen’s fuelled his motivation when he took to the court on Tuesday against Diallo.
Despite dropping serve twice in the first set and trailing 4-2 – possibly a hangover from making the quick dash to Queen’s after reaching the ‘s-Hertogenbosch final – he recalibrated, saving two set points to take the opener, then ultimately eased to victory.
De Minaur, the top seed at the ATP 500 event, will now meet another Canadian in Denis Shapovalov, who beat British wildcard Dylan Pennington-Jones 6-4 4-6 7-6(3).
"[It was] a pretty big challenge, by no means the most pretty match, today was all about surviving and advancing," De Minaur said.
Referring to fiancee Katie Boulter, who reached last week’s WTA semifinals at Queen’s, he added: "She's put the pressure on me to play well here at Queen's. We love a bit of healthy competition."
In other Aussie results on grass, Alexei Popyrin lost 6-4 6-2 to Belgium's Raphael Collignon at the ATP Halle event in Germany, while Nick Kyrgios did not even get on court, forced to withdraw after sustaining a right-knee injury in training ahead of his first-round match against Ben Shelton, Sunday's Stuttgart winner.
At the WTA tournament in Nottingham, Kimberly Birrell came close to victory before falling 4-6 7-6(3) 6-4 to fifth seed Ann Li, while Dane Sweeney lost 6-7(16) 6-1 6-2 to Briton Jacob Fearnley in the concurrent Challenger event.
Birrell’s countrywoman Talia Gibson plays for a place in the quarterfinals on Wednesday night (AEST), while Taylah Preston also remains alive in the draw.
Bernard Tomic and Thanasi Kokkinakis exited in the first round of the new grasscourt Challenger in Dublin.
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