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Rinky Hijikata has been left rocked by a deadly shooting at his girlfriend\u2019s school just as the rising Australian tennis star was notching the biggest win of his burgeoning career.<\/p>\n
Hijikata toiled for almost four hours to carve out a 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 first-round US Open victory over Russian Pavel Kotov to reach the second round of a grand slam outside of Australia for the first time.<\/p>\n
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Australian Rinky Hijikata returns to Pavel Kotov in his round-one win at the US Open.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n But the wildcard\u2019s watershed win was swiftly overshadowed by a fatal shooting at the University of North Carolina, where Hijikata spent two years.<\/p>\n A suspect is in custody after a faculty member was killed and terrorised students had to shelter for hours as police looked for the gunman.<\/p>\n \u201cI was pretty happy with the win today, but that\u2019s kind of put a dampener on it, to be honest,\u201d Hijikata said.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst and foremost, I want to send my thoughts and prayers to everyone back in Chapel Hill because that\u2019s not something you want to see what\u2019s happened. There is a lot bigger than my tennis match here today.<\/p>\n \u201cI was there for two years. I would have graduated this May, but my girlfriend is still in school there. I\u2019ve still got a lot mates on the team or in school.<\/p>\n \u201cNot the news I was hoping to come out to.\u201d<\/p>\n The 22-year-old said coming from Australia made it hard to comprehend how shootings seem so commonplace in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a very different dynamic,\u201d Hijikata said.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like as an Australian it can be a little bit of head scratcher at times, the way things run in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are times when you kind of don\u2019t feel safe, and it\u2019s very unfortunate what\u2019s happened today.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like it is really not an unexpected event, which makes it worse almost.\u201d<\/p>\n As well as a guaranteed $US123,000 ($A192,000) pay day, Hijikata\u2019s victory earned the Sydneysider a shot at unseeded Hungarian Marton Fucsovics for a place in the third round of a grand slam for the first time.<\/p>\n After watching a video of students jumping out of a window, Hijikata promised to play for his old schoolmates.<\/p>\n \u201cI think come tomorrow hopefully I will be alright,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll definitely be focused on my match. If anything, I want to try and play 10, 20 per cent harder on Wednesday for everyone at school at the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll definitely try harder for everyone back home and all the Tar Heels (university basketball players).\u201d<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nMost Viewed in Sport<\/h2>\n
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