Paris QFs: Van Assche, last Frenchman, faces Hijikata

Luca Van Assche is the last Frenchman left at the Rolex Paris Masters. Today, in the quarter-finals of the indoor Masters 1000, he faces Australian Rinky Hijikata in a match between two players far from the big names: the Frenchman is world No. 40 in the live ATP ranking with 1,305 points, his opponent is No. 62 with 893.

The tournament began on 2 November with 56 players in the draw from 23 countries, and France was the most represented nation with ten players. After the round of 16, Van Assche is the only one of them still in the event. For the home crowd, it is a story worth following to the end.

His run has been getting better round by round. In the first round he beat Mariano Navone 6-3 7-5, in the second Learner Tien 7-6 (4) 6-4: a measure of revenge, because a few days earlier Tien had beaten him 6-3 6-1 in the first round in Vienna. In the round of 16 came the heaviest win, over Lorenzo Musetti, 7-5 3-6 6-4.

That victory has a special flavour. Musetti had just knocked out world No. 1 Alexander Zverev in the second round, 7-6 (5) 6-2, and in Lyon, in the quarter-finals, he had beaten Van Assche himself 7-6 (5) 6-7 (7) 6-4. In Paris the sequence was reversed, and the head-to-head between the two now favours the Frenchman: 2-1.

Van Assche's first win over Musetti dates back to the second round of the 2024 Australian Open, when he won 6-3 3-6 6-7 (5) 6-3 6-0 in five sets. Then came the Italian's revenge in Lyon, and finally the Paris verdict, with three sets decided by a handful of points.

On the other side of the net is an opponent with just as many reasons to believe. Hijikata, 25, opened by beating Luciano Darderi 6-2 6-2, then came back to beat Novak Djokovic in the second round, 2-6 6-3 6-3. In the round of 16 he again recovered from a set down against Tomas Martin Etcheverry, winning 2-6 6-3 7-5.

The Australian's run is interesting above all for its starting point. In 2025 he finished with 8 wins and 16 losses on the main tour, and in the weeks before Paris he had lost in the first round in Basel to Taylor Fritz (6-4 7-6 (3)), in Almaty to Terence Atmane and in Shanghai to Roman Safiullin. In Paris he has already won three matches, two of them coming back after losing the first set.

Van Assche and Hijikata have no recorded previous meeting: it will be the first time. What links them is the ability to win deciding sets. The Frenchman went to a third set both against Vacherot in Lyon and against Musetti in Paris and won; the Australian won in three sets both against Djokovic and against Etcheverry.

The ranking stakes are high. A quarter-final is worth 200 points, a semi-final 400, a final 650 and the title 1,000. For Van Assche, getting through would mean rising to 1,505 points, while a title would take him to 2,105. For Hijikata the figures are 1,093 with a semi-final and 1,693 with the title.

Both are living their best week of the year at a Masters 1000. In 2026 Van Assche won the Estoril 250 and the Quebec City Challenger 125, but at the Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati he had collected only 25 points per tournament. Hijikata's best result at this level had been the round of 16 in Cincinnati, worth 100 points.

Their career numbers show how far this Paris run is from the script. Van Assche went 8-15 on the main tour between 2024 and 2025, and between 2022 and 2025 he won 16 of the 46 matches followed by the site. Hijikata, over the same period, won 30 of 74.

The picture of the tournament is wide open. 47 matches have been played, with 27 tie-breaks and 16 matches going to a deciding set; Matteo Berrettini did not take the court against Carlos Alcaraz in the round of 16. The quarter-final schedule has Ben Shelton against Tommy Paul, Van Assche against Hijikata, Fritz against Alcaraz and Casper Ruud against Nuno Borges.

Many leading names left early. Zverev went out in the second round, Djokovic lost to Hijikata, Arthur Fils was beaten by Fritz 6-3 6-4 and Jan-Lennard Struff by Ruud 6-3 6-3. In a draw with so many heavy absences, a meeting between two players looking for confirmation becomes one of the most unpredictable of the day.

The roll of honour is a reminder of how much Paris has rewarded the big names: in 2025 Jannik Sinner won, beating Felix Auger Aliassime 6-4 7-6 (4); in 2024 Zverev beat Ugo Humbert 6-2 6-2; in 2023 Djokovic beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-3. Two outsiders among the last eight tell of a different edition.

On the technical side, the match pits two ways of playing against each other. The Frenchman has shown he can grow late in sets, as against Musetti after losing the second. The Australian has built his wins on the ability to change rhythm after a difficult start, losing the first set against both Djokovic and Etcheverry.

Whoever goes through will have an even heavier semi-final to play, but with the certainty of already being part of the tournament's story. For Van Assche it would confirm the growth that began with the Estoril title; for Hijikata, it would end a season that started slowly with the best result of his year.

Meanwhile the live ranking keeps moving: Alexander Zverev is No. 1 with 9,560 points, 110 more than Sinner, while Alcaraz is on 6,200. Every round won in Paris can change the balance outside the top 30, and that is where Van Assche and Hijikata are gaining valuable ground.

The quarter-final is the second match on today's schedule in Paris. Those who follow French tennis hope to have a representative in the closing stages of the event; those who love outsider stories have plenty to enjoy anyway.