With a tennis coach father, it wasn't a matter of if but when Rinky Hijikata took up tennis.
At the age of three while his older brother and sister were taking lessons from Dad, he would act as ballboy.
For the past five years, Hijikata has been Australia's top ranked player in his age group and although he would qualify if the Japanese Tennis Federation came knocking, he says he's got no intention of doing so.
"My parents are both from Japan they lived and grew up there. My older brother and sister were born in Japan. My family came over just before I was born, so I'm Australian born and bred. Being able to represent Australia in under 16s is a great honour and hopefully the goal is one day to get it that step further and play for the actual men's team."
In a sign of how busy this country's top players are, before Hijikata travels to Budapest at the end of September for the Davis Cup, he's got several international tournaments to play.
"I'm heading off to Fiji next week, which is an International Tennis Federation tournament, and then prior to Davis Cup we'll play a couple of ITFs in Europe and I'll probably come back and play some in Asia. The goal is to make probably top 100 by the end of the year and hopefully make the junior slams next year."
Helping Hijikata achieve his dreams at the National Academy is none other than Lleyton Hewitt's sister, Jaslyn Hewitt-Shehadie.
She believes as long as he stays fit, he can reach the heights.
"Rinky will probably be number one on our Australian Junior Davis Cup team. The final is going to be held in Budapest in September. And we're really excited for the tour that he's going to go away for. He's going to play five ITF tournaments over in Europe in the leadup with a group of Australian athletes. He's had a few weeks off due to injury this year and his ranking has slipped slightly but we're looking to increase and improve his ranking. His coach Jarryd Bunton, strength and conditioning coaches, assist with his developing and just monitoring his loading."
All the academy members have to do a minimum of three hours a day doing school studies.
Hijikata does more than that in his own time, and says that's because he's mindful a professional sports career is a relatively short one.
"I'm pretty focused on my tennis but I'm also aware that a bad injury can end your run and its always important to have a backup plan. Everyone here all the boys are training well and working hard so yeah I think I'm at a good space in my tennis at the moment."
At the elite level of any sport, the difference between a champion and an also-ran is often small.
If Rinky Hijikata keeps his level head, he looks to have every chance of success both during his playing days and after they're over.
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