It was Aussie eyeballs everywhere on day two of the Miami Open on Wednesday, with seven to cast an eye over and a handful playing simultaneously, with three Aussies scheduled for an 11am local time start.
Kimberly Birrell, 26, is certainly at home in the conditions, with the sun having a bit of sting in it. She had qualified for back-to-back 1000 main draws and was seeking a second win at this level against Anastasia Potapova, the world No.38, who she had defeated in Brisbane at the start of the year.
Birrell is a good watch, free of all the injuries she had and playing the best tennis of her life right now. The difference between the world No.68 in Birrell and a player 30 spots higher is very small.
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The ball striking sitting at court level was fierce, and despite dropping the first set, she rebounded strongly to take the second and held her nerve in the third, despite the double fault tally rising to nine. Yet she won the important ground battles to give her further belief that she could match players ranked above her, going pound for pound at a punishing rate.
The final scoreline read 3-6 6-3 7-6 and a second-round matchup with world No.29 Marta Kostyuk presents another great opportunity to shine. Birrell is now No.60 in the live WTA Rankings, a career-high and climbing.
For Australian tennis, it's exciting, and surely it is inspiring the likes of Maddison Inglis, Priscilla Hon, Destanee Aiava, Lizette Cabrera and Jaimee Fourlis, who have come through in the same era that anything is possible, that their best tennis is still potentially ahead of them.
We have been asking the question for a while on The First Serve: when is a big pack of Australian women going to step out of the 100-250 ranking bracket, who have been there for a while. Birrell is the leader, and by some margin, let's hope for a big surge from the rest, to match the amount of Australian men inside the top-100.
Listen to Birrell's post-match thoughts below:
The other significant win of the day belonged to Tristan Schoolkate, who had his first ever win at tour-level after qualifying (where he defeated his great mate Adam Walton, who he is trying to emulate in 2025 to climb from 170 inside the top-100).
His emphatic 6-0 6-2 victory over fellow qualifier Ethan Quinn from the US in the first-round in just over an hour was clinical. He served superbly with 11 aces and won 86 per cent of first serve points.
Schoolkate possesses a really solid base, an all-court presence, the serve is a big weapon when it is on, and the great foundations laid by Andrew Roberts, have been built on further with former player Gavin Van Peperzeel taking the coaching reigns post the Australian Open, to have his charge sitting at a career high No.117 live.
There is no doubt we will add another Aussie male to the top-100 this year. Next, a terrific challenge against former world No.6 Felix Auger Aliassime.
Listen to Schoolkate's post-match thoughts below:
Elsewhere, Nick Kygrios on the main stadium court won his first singles match since October 2022, coming from a set down to defeat local qualifier Mackenzie McDonald 3-6 6-3 6-4 where he had more love from the crowd.
Physically, from an outsiders perspective, he appeared to have no concerns, and a date next with Karen Khachanov looms. The pair have had some epic battles, including two five-setters.
"It's numb at the moment," Kyrgios told the Tennis Channel when asked how his wrist was feeling after the win. "I don't know what that means, but we'll see how it pulls up tomorrow."
Rinky Hijikata took down Serbian Hamad Medjedovic in a tight three set battle 7-5 3-6 7-5 to record his fifth win at Masters 1000 level and set up a big second-round clash with Novak Djokovic on Friday.
Aleksandar Vukic's run of outs continued, going down to Belgium's David Goffin in three sets, his sixth straight first-round loss since his Davis Cup winning debut on February 1.
Wildcard recipient Ajla Tomljanović was outplayed by local leftie Bernarda Pera 6-3 6-2, and to complete the day, a very frustrated Christopher O'Connell, who led 4-1 in the final set, succumbed to Spain's Roberto Carballés Baena 6-3 3-6 7-6.
Jordan Thompson will fly the Aussie flag on Thursday in Miami when he faces local Marcos Giron, who took down another Aussie, Alexei Popyrin, in Indian Wells.
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