For the first time in her career on Tuesday, Kimberly Birrell won a match at Roland Garros — and it was a big one.
Roland Garros: Scores | Order of play | Draws
The 83rd-ranked Aussie recorded the first seismic upset of the event to close the curtain on Day 3 in Paris by beating No. 5 seed Jessica Pegula 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 — making the American the highest-ranked player to fall in the opening round.
Birrell had two career Top 10 wins to her name previously, both on home soil in Brisbane. But neither Daria Kasatkina in 2018 or Emma Navarro last year were ranked as highly as Pegula, who came into the clay-court Grand Slam at World No. 5 and had lost a first-round match at a Grand Slam event just once in the last five years. She also had reached the third round or better in Paris in back-to-back first-round losses in 2019-20, before she became a bona fide top player.
Despite winning fewer points in the match than Pegula overall — 76 to 80 — Birrell won the ones that mattered after losing the first set in less than a half hour. She in fact trailed by a set and a break at one stage, having lost eight of the opening 10 games, before storming back for the upset in 1 hour and 41 minutes.
More to come…
