Quarterfinals: Nineteen years in the making!
After edging Rinky Hijikata in a nail-biting battle, Luca Van Assche became, at 22, the second-youngest French player to reach the Rolex Paris Masters semifinals after Richard Gasquet in 2007.
A remarkable rise
A year ago, in early November 2025, Luca Van Assche was ranked outside the world’s Top 170. At the time, he was competing regularly on the Challenger circuit, looking to collect valuable ranking points and climb back to a position more in keeping with his talent and early promise.
This Saturday, he will step onto Centre Court at the Plenitude Arena as a Masters 1000 semifinalist, having never previously won a match in Paris before this edition (first round of qualifying in 2021 and 2025, and first round of the main draw in 2023).
Never give up
That was the watchword for both players in this second quarterfinal of the day. As is often the case in a first meeting, they took some time to size each other up. Helped by a particularly accurate serve (5 aces and 85% of points won behind his first serve), Luca Van Assche levelled at 4-4 with a love hold featuring two aces, before winning eight of the next eleven points and converting his first set point (6-4 in 40 minutes).
But Rinky Hijikata has been playing some of the best tennis of his career in Paris and proved it again on Friday. Riding a five-match winning streak, including a particularly prestigious victory over Novak Djokovic, the Australian refused to let go. No stranger to comebacks, having already dropped the opening set against Nole on Wednesday and Etcheverry on Thursday, he made the stronger start this time and moved 3-1 ahead.
Finding slightly less success behind his first serve, Van Assche drew strength from the home crowd to fight his way back into the set and force a tie-break. Hijikata eventually converted his third opportunity to take it 7-6(4) after 1 hour and 8 minutes.
The deciding set, long poised on a knife edge, turned into a gripping battle between two players eager to attack the net, with 53 points played there in total, and determined to fight until the very end.
Once again, Rinky Hijikata made the stronger start, moving 2-0 ahead, but the home favourite dug deep to draw level. Two points away from victory at 5-4, Luca Van Assche found himself in the same position again at 6-5. This time, a double fault from the qualifier handed him three match points.
Aggressive on return, Maxime Texeira’s charge forced his opponent into an error to seal victory after a 2-hour-and-44-minute battle (6-4, 6-7(4), 7-5).
"It was another incredible match, just like all the ones I’ve played since the start of the tournament," he told Eurosport. "None of my opponents have made things easy for me. Rinky played a great match today. He has a very attacking game and is excellent at the net, so on a fast surface like this, he wasn’t easy to handle. I’m really happy with the way I managed the third set. The start was very difficult and I quickly found myself 2-0 down, but once again, I managed to dig deep and find a way through."
To reach the final, he will have to overcome another major obstacle in Ben Shelton:
"I had a good game plan today, but my level dropped at certain moments. I’ll have to do better tomorrow if I want to trouble him."
Before then, the former junior world No.1 can celebrate before setting his sights even higher, having already achieved the best Masters 1000 run of his career.