Kim Birrell reduced to tears after late change of opponent ends in Australian Open defeat
Australia’s top-ranked women’s player Kim Birrell was driven to tears in the aftermath of a shock straight sets defeat to an opponent she only found out she was playing minutes before her round-one clash at Melbourne Park on Tuesday,Lucky loser Eva Lys made the most of an unlikely opportunity in a 6-2, 6-2 victory, receiving a call-up immediately before the Australian Open match on Kia Arena that lasted just 70 minutes,Birrell – who survived qualifiers and is ranked No 101 in the world – said she was affected by the 11th-hour switch in opponent due to the withdrawal of No 13 seed Anna Kalinskaya,“To find out that she withdrew and that I was playing someone completely different, it did rattle me unfortunately,” she said,“It felt like it just got away from me.
Beforehand my nerves elevated quite a bit, then when you’ve got the nerves going, your tendency is to do the opposite of what you need to, and you just rush.”Breaking down in the press conference, the 26-year-old said she didn’t want her Australian season, which also included a run to the quarter-finals in Brisbane, to be defined by the defeat.“I’m an emotional person, I’m human,” Birrell said.“I put a lot of hard work and effort into this sport, and then to obviously also play some really good matches and then have a day like today is a hard pill to swallow.”Lys was beaten by another Australian, Destanee Aiava, in qualifying but has spent the past three days at Melbourne Park in the hope of a last minute call-up.
She had been on the treatment table when she was told she was playing in the next match on Kia Arena, following a men’s clash that was in its final stages,“I found out about it 10 minutes before the match, so I didn’t have time to get nervous,” Lys said,“That was the thing that really helped me, I had a pretty loose arm,”Birrell’s defeat marks a change in fortune for the local contingent after nine Australians won first round matches on Monday,Rinky Hijikata lost to world No 146 Mitchell Krueger in straight sets in the afternoon.
The American had won through qualifying and continued his good form with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 victory, landing almost 80% of his first serves across 131 minutes on court three.Another to meet defeat on Tuesday was highly-touted teenager Emerson Jones, who was given a rude initiation as sixth-seed Elena Rybakina dominated their contest on Margaret Court Arena to win 6-1, 6-1 in just 53 minutes.Jones said she will be better for the experience.“The whole match I was a bit nervous because I didn’t really know what to expect, but now I think it’s great that I’ve had that experience.Hopefully I’ll do better next time.
”Sign up to Australia SportGet a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports deskafter newsletter promotionThe 16-year-old wildcard held serve early in both sets, but couldn’t stay in touch with her powerful Khazakh opponent, who won almost twice as many points as Jones and reeled off 11 aces.Four of them came consecutively in a barrage during the final game of the first set, where the Australian had streaked to a 0-40 advantage and was hoping to reverse the momentum which to that point had been mostly one way.When it was suggested by on-court interviewer Alicia Molik afterwards that the sequence was rough on a 16-year-old, Rybakina laughed it off.“I lost my concentration and focus, so I was pretty quick to be 0-40, and then I knew that I needed to step up and serve,” she said.Jones had become the first Australian since Jelena Dokic in 1998 to be the world’s top junior, and shocked world No 37 Xinyu Wang in Adelaide in the lead-up.
But the Queenslander was clearly out-matched against Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion and 2023 Australian Open finalist.The world No 7 said afterwards Jones had a bright future, and she just needed to “be patient and work hard”.No 8 seed Alex de Minaur and 25th seed Alexei Popyrin headline the evening session on Tuesday at Melbourne Park, which also includes Olivia Gadecki.
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