Brandon Nakashima vs Rinky Hijikata Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Houston

Prediction published on 02/04/2024, 09:40  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 04/04/2024 at 06:13 in Tennis Predictions

There will definitely be an unseeded player in the last eight of the US clay court championships. That's because the last 16 sees unseeded pair Brandon Nakashima and Rinky Hijikata face each other. The winner will take on either top seed Ben Shelton or unseeded Zizou Bergs in the last eight. Nakashima made it past round one with a straight sets win over Duje Ajdukovic for the loss of only five games. That's taken him to 87th in the live rankings, five places higher than in the latest ranking list. Nakashima has shown good form on clay in the past and made it to the third round at Roland Garros two years ago. He also got to the semi-finals of last year's clay court tournament in Lyon. He claimed some good scalps that week with victories over Tommy Paul, Arthur Rinderknech and Diego Schwartzman.

Rinky Hijikata caused an upset in round one when beating the fifth seed Christopher Eubanks. It was a tight match with both sets being decided via a tie-break. This is his second match against Nakashima. The other was six years ago at Roland Garros in the juniors tournament. Nakashima won that clay court match for the loss of only five games. Hijikata's win over Eubanks was a welcome one as the Australian had lost his last four matches, all on hard courts. It was also his first win on clay since 2022. Nakashima has been showing signs of returning to the form he had in 2022 and can get a win here.