Rinky Hijikata, 18, claimed his first professional singles title last weekend at M15 Fayetteville, in Arizona, United States.

Making use of his ITF junior ranking to take up one of the junior reserved spots, the Australian teen battled hard all week, three times coming back from a set down. In the semi final, Hijikata faced top seeded Takuto Niki. The Japanese former top 300 ranked player was aiming to make his second final appearance of 2019 but, with Hijikata leading 61 2-0, Niki retired from their match handing the young Australian the win and a place in the final.

Hijikata faced second seed Nick Chappell from the USA in the final was soon a set down as Nick Chappell raced into a 62 lead. Up until this point, the American was yet to drop a set this week but Hijikata drew on his experiences earlier in the week to turn the match around and run out a 26 62 61 winner and claim his first pro singles title.

Along with Hijikata, there were a further eight first time pro singles champions crowned last week and one of those was Elina Avanesyan who turned 17 early in the week at the W15 Shymkent tournament in Kazakhstan.

Also like Hijikata, the Russian teenager was competing using her ITF junior ranking and despite her young age and facing seeded opposition in each round following a first round defeat of another junior entrant in round one, Avanesyan did not drop a set as she saw off the second, eighth, fourth and third seeds in successive matches culminating in her maiden title win on Sunday courtesy of a 62 75 win over Serbian Tamara Curovic.

Avanesyan also reached the doubles final in Shymkent for the second week running. Having fallen short the previous week, a second doubles title from three finals in 2019 was won with a 63 60 win alongside Viktoryia Kanapatskaya on Saturday and also made her one of three players to achieve a title double last week.

At the W60 Saint Malo tournament in France, Varvara Gracheva won her fourth singles title of the year, and her biggest to date. The Russian dominated in all her matches, never losing more than three games in any set, and this title triumph has seen her rise to 144 in the latest WTA rankings, a new career high for the 19-year-old and first time in the WTA top 150.

It wasn’t just the younger generation enjoying success as last week’s action also resulted in a change at the top of the men’s singles titles leaderboard as Ivan Nedelko picked up his seventh title win of the year to move level with Dmitry Popko. The 33-year-old won at the M15 Antalya tournament in Turkey and now has 26 singles titles to his name since winning his first in May 2013.