Wildcard Birrell upsets 31st seed Kanepi to reach Australian Open second round

Australian wildcard Kimberly Birrell upset Estonian Kaia Kanepi, the No 31 seed, in three sets to reach the second round of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Tuesday.

Kanepi served for the match at 5-4 in the second set after winning the first. But Birrell, ranked No 167 in the world, fought back to win 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 in two hours and 32 minutes.

The 24-year-old, who reached the third round here in 2019, will face Czech teen Linda Fruhvirtova next.

Australian Open (Grand Slam), other first-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24,297,942, most recent results first):

• Tamara Zidansek vs. Ons Jabeur
• Viktoriya Tomova vs. Belinda Bencic
• Alison Riske-Amritraj vs. Marketa Vondrousova
• Sloane Stephens vs. Anastasia Potapova
• Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Nuria Parrizas Diaz
• Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Elizabeth Mandlik
• Daria Kasatkina vs. Varvara Gracheva
• Claire Liu vs. Madison Brengle
• Mayar Sherif vs. Magda Linette
• Maryna Zanevska vs. Veronika Kudermetova
• Shuai Zhang vs. Patricia Maria Tig
• Lucrezia Stefanini vs. Tatjana Maria
• Jasmine Paolini vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Lucia Bronzetti vs. Laura Siegemund
• Petra Martic vs. Viktorija Golubic
• Sorana Cirstea vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Lauren Davis vs. Danka Kovinic
• Anett Kontaveit vs. Julia Grabher
• Donna Vekic vs. Oksana Selekhmeteva
• Xiyu Wang vs. Karolina Pliskova
• Katherine Sebov vs. Caroline Garcia
• Katie Volynets vs. Evgeniya Rodina
• Linda Fruhvirtova beat Jaimee Fourlis (WC): 6-0, 6-4
• Aryna Sabalenka (5) beat Tereza Martincova: 6-1, 6-4
• Camila Giorgi beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: 6-0, 6-1
• Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (Q) beat Martina Trevisan (21): 6-3, 6-2
• Garbine Muguruza vs. Elise Mertens
• Shelby Rogers beat Arianne Hartono (Q): 6-4, 6-3
• Leylah Fernandez beat Alize Cornet: 7-5, 6-2
• Ekaterina Alexandrova (19) beat Ysaline Bonaventure: 6-2, 6-1
• Taylor Townsend (WC) beat Diane Parry (WC): 6-1, 6-1
• Madison Keys (10) beat Anna Blinkova: 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
• Xinyu Wang beat Storm Hunter (WC): 7-6 (2), 6-4
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Jule Niemeier: 6-4, 7-5
• Kaja Juvan beat Selena Janicijevic (Q): 7-5, 6-1
• Lin Zhu beat Rebecca Marino: 6-2, 6-4
• Jil Teichmann (32) beat Harriet Dart: 7-5, 6-1
• Elena Rybakina (22) beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto: 7-5, 6-3
• Nadia Podoroska beat Leolia Jeanjean (LL): 6-0, 6-3
• Catherine McNally beat Laura Pigossi (LL): 7-5, 6-1
• Camila Osorio beat Panna Udvardy: 6-4, 6-1
• Kateryna Baindl beat Kamilla Rakhimova: 7-5, 6-7 (8), 6-1
• Barbora Krejcikova (20) beat Sara Bejlek (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Anna Bondar beat Ana Bogdan: 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
• Qinwen Zheng (29) beat Dalma Galfi: 6-0, 6-2
• Aliaksandra Sasnovich beat Brenda Fruhvirtova (Q): 7-5, 6-2
• Jelena Ostapenko (17) beat Dayana Yastremska: 6-4, 6-2
• Victoria Azarenka (24) beat Sofia Kenin: 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Anhelina Kalinina beat Coco Vandeweghe (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Karolina Muchova beat Lesia Tsurenko (Q): 6-2, 6-1
• Petra Kvitova (15) beat Alison Van Uytvanck: 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Bernarda Pera beat Moyuka Uchijima (WC): 2-6, 6-3, 6-1
• Clara Burel (Q) beat Talia Gibson (WC): 6-3, 6-4
• Maria Sakkari (6) beat Yue Yuan: 6-1, 6-4
• Diana Shnaider (Q) beat Kristina Kucova: 7-6 (6), 7-5
• Marta Kostyuk beat Amanda Anisimova (28): 6-3, 6-4
• Olivia Gadecki (WC) beat Polina Kudermetova (Q): 7-5, 6-1
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Jaqueline Cristian: 6-0, 6-1
• Coco Gauff (7) beat Katerina Siniakova: 6-1, 6-4
• Emma Raducanu beat Tamara Korpatsch: 6-3, 6-2
• Danielle Collins (13) beat Anna Kalinskaya: 7-5, 5-7, 6-4
• Bianca Andreescu beat Marie Bouzkova (25): 6-2, 6-4
• Cristina Bucsa (Q) beat Eva Lys (Q): 2-6, 6-0, 6-2