Gutsy Birrell, Duckworth prevail at US Open as Alcaraz makes strong return

Facing a fourth straight first-round defeat at the US Open, Australia’s Kim Birrell reversed her fortunes with a typically gutsy performance to overcome Croatia’s Petra Marcinko in three sets and win for the first time in New York.

The 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 triumph booked a second-round clash with 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and propelled Birrell to a live ranking of No.55, which would be a new career high if she maintains it.

Birrell, who overcame two career-threatening elbow surgeries before she even threatened to be a top-100 player, has now won at least one match at all four grand slams, highlighted by her round-of-32 run at the 2019 Australian Open.

She is the second Australian to win at this year’s US Open, joining day-one winner Taylah Preston , who made the most of her wildcard to down American Alycia Parks in straight sets.

But Aleks Vukic could not replicate her feat, going down in five sets – 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 – to new Japanese rising star Rei Sakamoto, who ended his great countryman Kei Nishikori’s grand slam career in qualifying and appears poised to become a tour force in the years ahead.

Former junior world No.1 Sakamoto looked on the verge of collapsing physically when the fifth set started a day earlier, but re-energised his hopes with a series of big and bold shots to break Vukic in the opening game.

The 20-year-old never let Vukic back in, not offering the Australian even a single break point in the decider, including returning to complete the match on Tuesday (AEST) after rain forced the fifth set to be held over with Sakamoto serving at 4-3.

Like Vukic, Birrell had plenty of time to think about her plight when her match was suspended overnight while she was a set down to Marcinko and locked at three-all in the tiebreak.

The 28-year-old lost the first point on resumption to edge closer to defeat, but that only sharpened her resolve against an opponent who boasted more power but arguably less willingness to fight. Birrell reeled off four consecutive points to level the match and set up a fierce battle.

Marcinko dragged a forehand wide to concede serve in the third game, but menacingly brought up a break-back point on three separate occasions, only for Birrell to have an answer each time.

The Queenslander staved off the last two with rare aces before going 3-1 up when Marcinko dumped a forehand volley into the net. It was not the last time she would have to fend off a Marcinko rally.

Already 15-30 down trying to push 4-2 ahead, Birrell had to hang in as Marcinko aggressively ripped groundstrokes at her. The problem for the Croatian was she could not find a way through the dogged Australian, who absorbed her rival’s best then capitalised once she inevitably faltered.

Birrell was spared from having to serve the contest out when Marcinko double-faulted to go match-point down before putting one last forehand into the net to send Team Birrell into raptures.

The schedule is full of Australians again, with Rinky Hijikata, Alexei Popyrin and Maya Joint all still to come.