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"I think we were just happy to...){kind=link}
[Summarize this content to 500 words by Matt Bowers
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—Former University of North Carolina All-America Rinky Hijikata completed an improbable, two-week run with partner Jason Kubler by winning the 2023 Australian Open men’s doubles championship on Sunday at Rod Laver Arena.
The pair began their run to the title as wildcard entries to the main draw field. On the way to the championship, they beat the tournament’s No. 6-seeded team in the second round, the top seed in the quarterfinals and the eighth seed in the semis. In their first event playing as a team, Hijikata and Kubler became just the second wildcard team to win the Australian Open doubles championship in the Open era.
Hijikata served as he and Kubler won the final two points in a second-set tiebreaker to win the championship over Hugo Nys of France and Jan Zeilinski of Poland, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
“I think we were just happy to…
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