Rinky Hijikata has been left rocked by a lethal shooting at his girlfriend’s college simply because the rising Australian tennis star was notching the most important win of his burgeoning profession.
Key factors:
- Rinky Hijikata has made the second spherical of the US Open for the primary time
- A shooting on the University of North Carolina, the place Hijikata spent two years, claimed one life
- Hijikata’s girlfriend is a present pupil on the college
Hijikata toiled for nearly 4 hours to carve out a 7-5 5-7 6-3 7-5 first-round US Open victory over Russian Pavel Kotov to make it to the second spherical of a grand slam outdoors of Australia for the primary time in his profession.
But the wildcard’s watershed win was swiftly overshadowed by a deadly shooting on the University of North Carolina, the place Hijikata spent two years.
A suspect is in custody after a college member was killed and terrorised college students needed to shelter for hours as police regarded for the gunman.
“I was pretty happy with the win today but that’s kind of put a dampener on it, to be honest,” Hijikata mentioned.
“First and foremost I want to send my thoughts and prayers to everyone back in Chapel Hill because that’s not something you want to see … [it] is a lot bigger than my tennis match here today.
“I used to be there for 2 years. I’d have graduated this May however my girlfriend remains to be at school there. I’ve nonetheless acquired lots mates on the workforce or at school.
“Not the news I was hoping to come out to.”
The 22-year-old mentioned coming from Australia made it exhausting to understand how shootings appeared so commonplace within the US.
“It is a very different dynamic,” Hijikata mentioned.
“I feel like as an Australian it can be a little bit of head scratcher at times, the way things run in the US.
“There are instances if you sort of do not feel protected and it’s extremely unlucky what’s occurred in the present day.
“I feel like it is really not an unexpected event, which makes it worse almost.”
As properly as a assured $US123,000 ($192,000) pay day, Hijikata’s victory earned the Sydneysider a shot at unseeded Hungarian Marton Fucsovics for a spot within the third spherical of a grand slam.
AAP
