{"id":34398,"date":"2025-12-04T15:13:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T04:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/?p=34398"},"modified":"2025-12-04T15:13:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T04:43:31","slug":"rinky-hijikata-and-emerson-jones-crowned-champions-at-the-2025-city-of-playford-tennis-international-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/news\/2025\/12\/04\/rinky-hijikata-and-emerson-jones-crowned-champions-at-the-2025-city-of-playford-tennis-international-2","title":{"rendered":"Rinky Hijikata and Emerson Jones crowned champions at the 2025 City of Playford Tennis International"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The sun prevailed for an incredible day of finals action at the <strong>City of Playford Tennis International<\/strong>, with Australians <strong>Rinky Hijikata<\/strong> (NSW) and <strong>Emerson Jones<\/strong> (QLD) claiming the 2025 singles titles in front of strong local crowds at the <strong>Playford Tennis Centre<\/strong> in Elizabeth East.<\/p>\n<p>Hosted by <strong>Tennis SA<\/strong> and <strong>Tennis Australia<\/strong> in conjunction with the <strong>City of Playford, TennisGear<\/strong> and the <strong>Playford Tennis Club<\/strong>, the combined men\u2019s ATP Challenger and women\u2019s ITF World Tennis Tour Australian Pro Tour event took place from Sunday 23 \u2013 Sunday 30 November, and offered a total prize pool of <strong>more than AUD $240,000<\/strong> along with valuable world ranking points.<\/p>\n<p>Seventeen-year-old rising star <strong>Emerson Jones<\/strong> delivered a composed and confident performance to take out the Women\u2019s Singles Championship.<br \/>Jones defeated fellow Australian and defending champion <strong>Maddison Inglis<\/strong> 6-4 6-4 in just under 90 minutes, securing the third ITF singles title of her career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really happy and I love the environment here, the courts and the crowd,\u201d <strong>Jones<\/strong> said post-match.\u201cIt was a really fun week, and I can\u2019t wait to be back next year\u201d she exclaimed.<\/p>\n<p>In the men\u2019s final, No.2 seed and reigning champion <strong>Rinky Hijikata<\/strong> battled for 2.5 hours to overcome fellow Aussie <strong>Dane Sweeny<\/strong> 6-0 6-7(8) 6-4. Hijikata stormed through the opening set before Sweeny lifted his level in a gripping second-set tiebreak. Despite the late momentum shift, Hijikata steadied and secured a crucial break in the final set to successfully defend his Playford title.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust defended the title here in Playford, it\u2019s been another great week!\u201d <strong>Hijikata<\/strong> exclaimed post-match.\u201cI can\u2019t wait to see you all next year\u201d, he signed off.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tennis SA CEO Debbie Sterrey<\/strong> praised the high standard of tennis and the importance of the event for the state.\u201c It has been a fantastic week of world-class tennis in Playford, and we are incredibly proud to host an event that continues to attract such exceptional talent from across Australia and around the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe City of Playford Tennis International plays a vital role in strengthening the tennis pathway here in South Australia, and it\u2019s wonderful to see our community embrace the event year after year\u201d <strong>Sterrey <\/strong>said.<\/p>\n<p>Tournament Director <strong>Dylan Hicks<\/strong> also reflected on the success of the 2025 tournament.\u201cThis year\u2019s field showcased an outstanding calibre of players, and it was incredible to see so many exciting matches across the week,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe atmosphere, the support from the community, and the level of competition made this a truly memorable edition of the tournament\u201d said <strong>Hicks.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An incredible week of elite-level tennis was once again on display at the 2025 City of Playford Tennis International, reinforcing its growing reputation as one of Australia\u2019s premier Pro Tour events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sun prevailed for an incredible day of finals action at the City of Playford Tennis International.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6294,"featured_media":34399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}