Stefanos Tsitsipas v Rinky Hijikata live stream | Australian Open 2023 preview

Stefanos Tsitsipas aims to avoid an upset when he faces Rinky Hijikata in the Second Round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.

The third seed is a heavy favourite to advance to the last 32 at Melbourne Park at the expense of wildcard Hijikata, who is 165 places in the ATP rankings.

Tsitsipas enjoys playing at the season’s opening major, where he has reached the semi-finals in three of the last four editions, while he was beaten by Milos Raonic in the third round three years ago.

Having claimed ATP titles in Monte Carlo and Mallorca last season, the 24-year-old arrived in Melbourne with momentum having won all four matches on the way to helping Greece reach the semi-finals at the inaugural United Cup.

He built on that with a commanding first-round performance as he put Quentin Halys to the sword 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(6).

By contrast, second-round opponent Hijikata was forced to dig deep to claim his maiden career win at a slam.

Making only his second major appearance having also played at last year’s US Open, the Australian delighted his home crowd by recovering from two sets down to eventually overcome Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3.

But the 21-year-old will know he cannot afford to be slow out of the blocks if he is to have any chance of causing a huge upset by eliminating Tsitsipas.

The winner of this match will play either Botic van de Zandschlup or Tallon Griekspoor in the Australian Open third round.

Play gets underway at around 10am GMT on Wednesday and will be contested over the best of five sets on Rod Laver Arena.

How to watch Tsitsipas v Hijikata live stream

18+ | Funded account required | Geo restrictions apply | Please Gamble Responsibly

1) Go to Bet365.com via this special link

2) Register an account, place a £10 first bet and get £50 in Free Bets* (18+ only, T&Cs apply)

3) Once registered, go to the sports homepage and select ‘Tennis’ from the left-hand menu

4) Select the play icon next to the match in progress and the stream window will appear

*18+ only. New Customers only. Bet £10* & Get £50* in Free Bets. Sign up, deposit between £5* and £10* to your account and bet365 will give you five times that value in Free Bets when you place qualifying bets to the same value and they are settled. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits. Min odds/bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. T&Cs, time limits & exclusions apply. BeGambleAware.org. *or currency equivalent.