Exclusive: Abdominal tear leaves Hijikata's US Open campaign at risk, played through pain at Wimbledon

Rinky Hijikata at Wimbledon. (Getty/Mike Hewitt)

Rinky Hijikata's phenomenal run to the Wimbledon doubles final was achieved whilst carrying an abdominal injury, casting doubt over his fitness to compete at the US Open next month.

The Australian paired up with Dutchman David Pel at Wimbledon on short notice, despite barely crossing paths, where they knocked out the No.1 and No.3 seeds en route to the final.

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However, according to Hijikata's coach, Mark Draper, the 24-year-old recently discovered that he has been playing through abdominal pain since the first week of June.

After withdrawing mid-match down 6-7(4), 2-1 in his second-round qualifying encounter in Washington on Monday, July 21, Hijikata underwent an MRI scan in the American capital, revealing a grade II abdominal tear.

Usually, an abdominal tear of that extent takes roughly two months to make a full recovery.

"It all started in Birmingham, the first week of the grass court season. He was playing semi-finals, and he felt like he twinged it a bit there. It wasn't anything too bad," Draper exclusively told The First Serve.

"Then we went to 's-Hertogenbosch where he was struggling a bit in practice. He played Dan Evans [in the main draw], and he was really struggling in that match and ended up losing in three sets.

"So we decided to rehab it. He didn't play Queen's and didn't serve for maybe seven to 10 days.

"He got back and played Mallorca; he was okay, and then when he played [David] Goffin first match at Wimbledon, he started to feel it a bit again.

"Then it was sort of hit and miss through Wimbledon. He had days where he felt nothing; he was actually fine against [Ben] Shelton [in the second-round], and then in a couple of doubles matches later in the week, he started to feel it again, but played the semi-final and the final pretty much unhindered.

"We flew back to America and trained a day before he came to D.C. and was serving full. The first day he trained at D.C., he said, 'Jeez, my ab's not feeling particularly good', and that's when he was just rolling a few warm-up serves in.

"He's back in Brisbane now, going through rehab to get back ideally for Winston-Salem leading into the US Open, but definitely hoping to play the US Open."

Hijikata has officially withdrawn from the Toronto Masters event beginning July 28.

The Winston-Salem Open, an ATP 250 tournament, commences on August 17, one week before the US Open main draw on August 25.

Currently ranked No.82, Hijikata's name is included in the US Open cut-off list for the singles main draw.

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