New Delhi: In a span of just five days, tears of joy turned into tears of sorrow for home favourite tennis star Kimberly Birrell as her dreams of making it big at the Australian Open shattered. Birrell, who was in tears five days back after securing a main draw entry at the first Grand Slam of the season, cried woefully after her early departure in the opening round at the event on Tuesday.
Birrell’s dream of showing big at her home Grand Slam turned into a tearful disappointment as the 26-year-old went down in her opening round clash at the Australian Open. Birrell, who fought her hard way through the qualifying, struggled massively against Eva Lys, going down 2-6, 2-6 in just 70 minutes in the first round contest.
Earlier, Birrell had qualified for the main draw of the Grand Slam after a resilient performance on the court to beat Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-3, 6-7, 6-4. She had qualified for the Australian Open for the first time in her career and after the winning smash, she sat down on the court and cried.
Here’s the video
Kim Possible! 🇦🇺
An emotional Kimberly Birrell qualifies for the #AO2025 main draw after a resilient performance to defeat Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4 👏 pic.twitter.com/8OCH3GrnJ7
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 9, 2025
Change of opponent leads to emotional defeat
An unexpected turn of events took place that led to the Australian tennis player losing the encounter. Birrell’s preparation was focused well on giving a hard challenge to world number 16 Anna Kalinskaya, who she was supposed to face in the first round. However, before the scheduled match, Kalinskaya withdrew, leaving Birrell to face Lys, ranked 128th. The sudden change unsettled the Australian player, who even admitted that she was not in control of her game.
As a result of the loss, she was visibly emotional on the court and broke down in tears during the post-match conference. “I had prepared to play Anna. She’s a really amazing player,” Birrell explained. “To find out she withdrew and that I was playing someone completely different, it did rattle me, unfortunately,” she said post the match.
Kimberly Birrell’s campaign at the Australian Open 2025 ended in 70 minutes on Tuesday with a first-round defeat against Eva Lys. Tennis Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
