After a fairytale day two at the Australian Open with nine Australian winners, day three has started with back-to-back losses for Queenslanders Emerson Jones and Kimberly Birrell.
Birrell was unable to capitalise on the last-minute withdrawal of 13th seed Anna Kalinskaya as she was comprehensively beaten by lucky loser Eva Lys, who was previously defeated by Australian Destanee Aiava in the final round of qualifying.
Similarly, appearing in her first Grand Slam main draw, Jones, the world no.1 junior, was out-muscled by sixth seed and 2022 Wimbledon Champion Elena Rybakina 1-6, 1-6 in 54 minutes on Margaret Court Arena.
For Rybakina, the win was a relief after a long week of batting away questions into the status of her relationship with recently re-hired coach Stefan Vukov, who is the subject of a WTA investigation into allegations of misconduct against Rybakina herself.
While Jones, 16, was unable to put any meaningful pressure on the sixth seed, she showed glimpses of the world-class shotmaking that some pundits believe will help her to become Australia’s next Ash Barty, if not better.
In the end, Rybakina’s speed and weight of shot were all too much for the teenager.
Though her Grand Slam debut was brief, the experience for Jones, who is already in the top 300 and registered her first top-50 win in Adelaide last week, will prove invaluable as she looks to transition from juniors to WTA level tennis.
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Elsewhere, Kimberly Birrell was quickly dispatched by German Eva Lys 2-6, 2-6 in an underwhelming performance on Kia Arena.
Birrell, who only learned of the 13th seed Kalinskaya’s withdrawal moments before the match, looked lost at sea for the duration of the 70-minute match as her best tennis deserted her.
After an emotional journey through qualifying despite being the highest-ranked Australian after her run in Brisbane, Birrell was unable to transfer the inspired tennis of her gruelling qualifying campaign to the main draw.
Broken in the second game of the match, things went from bad to worse for Birrell as both her serve and groundstrokes malfunctioned with alarming regularity.
On the other side of the net, Lys, who wasn’t even in the draw when Birrell was starting her warm-up, appeared liberated as she played with the freedom that being a last-minute call-up provides.
Taking the first set 6-2, Lys quickly ran away to a 3-0 lead in the second set as Birrell continued to falter. Though she held serve for the first time in the fourth game in the second set, Birrell was unable to put any pressure on Lys as her Australian Open dream quickly came to an end.
For German-born Birrell, the loss marks the end of a successful three-week block that included a run to the quarter-finals at the Brisbane WTA500 which was highlighted by a win over America world number 8 Emma Navarro, three gritty qualifying wins, and her sixth main draw appearance at the Australian Open.
At the time of writing Birrell, whose best appearance at the Australian Open was a run to the third round in 2019 as a 20-year-old, remains the highest-ranked Australian with a live career-high ranking of 94.
Birrell opens her doubles campaign tomorrow alongside Queenslander Olivia Gadecki. The pair received a wildcard from Tennis Australia and will play Serbia’s Nina Stojanović and Aleksandra Krunić in the first round.
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