It means Nadal remains unbeaten in his 20 Grand Slam matches this year, having triumphed at the Australian Open and French Open before withdrawing from the Wimbledon semifinals through injury.
The Spaniard was playing his first US Open match since winning his fourth title at Flushing Meadows in 2019, recovering from an early scare against world No. 198 Hijikata.
“I was a bit nervous,” Nadal said of his performance in the first set. “First game here in New York in three years, a night session, it’s always exciting. I went through that difficult moment.”
Hijikata secured the opening break with a lob at 3-3 before serving for an early lead, but Nadal began to assert his dominance in the second set – breaking Hijitaka’s serve at the first opportunity.
Nadal seemed unconcerned from there – leveling the match with another break and then taking the next two sets to complete the win in just over three hours. He finished the match with 42 winners and 22 unforced errors.
Without Novak Djokovic in the draw, Nadal has a good chance of winning his 23rd Grand Slam title at this year’s US Open.
“You know what, I’ve been training pretty well all week,” Nadal said. “Then the competition is a different story. You have to go through this whole process – it’s not easy.”
The 36-year-old was also questioned about taking too long between serves during Tuesday’s game, but Nadal insisted the referees didn’t treat him any differently and didn’t warn him for exceeding the time limit between serves.
“I have the problem that I sweat a lot,” he explained. “When you play in these very wet conditions the biggest problem we have today is that in recent years the ball boys haven’t brought the towel to you – you have to go to the furthest place on court to take the towel.
“The problem for players like me is that I sweat so much. If you go to get the towel you will have problems with the time, so I don’t go very often. I don’t think I have that.” any different treatment than the referees.”
Nadal meets Italy’s Fabio Fognini in the second round – a player he has beaten 13 times in 17 games.