Aussie tennis aces run aground at the beach in Florida

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Aussie tennis aces run aground at the beach in Florida

It was far from a great day at the beach for Australians competing at the ATP men’s tennis tournament in Florida.

Aleksandar Vukic and Rinky Hijikata both suffered straight-sets losses in their round-of-32 matches at the prestigious hardcourt event, the Delray Beach Open, on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).

Vukic, who made the third round at this year’s *********** Open, lost to world No.63 Yoshihito Nishioka, the Japanese player winning 6-3 6-4.

Despite serving nine aces to his opponent’s five, the *********** world No.67 was unable to convert any of the four break points he set up, whereas Nishioka secured a break in each set on his way a comfortable victory.

It was a disappointing result for Vukic, who made a successful Davis Cup debut in Australia’s recent victory over Sweden.

Vukic, playing in his first Cup at the age of 28, made an immediate impact by beating 21-year-old Leo Borg, son of Swedish great Bjorn Borg, 6-4 6-4 in Stockholm.

However, he couldn’t reproduce that effort in Florida, with Nishioka, who made the final at this event in 2020, booking his ticket to the round of 16.

While Vukic would have been disappointed by Tuesday’s result, even more devastating was the 6-2 6-0 scoreline in Hijikata’s loss to ******** player Yunchaokete Bu.

World No.72 Hijikata and the No.69-ranked Bu had previously faced each other on the junior circuit, but this match marked the first ATP Tour-level meeting between the pair.

The *********** landed 60 per cent of his first serves compared with Bu’s 53 per cent, but the ******** player was able to convert five of the eight break points he had, whereas Hijikata failed to set up a single break opportunity.

*********** veteran James Duckworth had been scheduled to play Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the round of 32 later on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) but was forced to withdraw.

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