7th seed Daria Kasatkina was victim to the first upset of the 2019 season as she was edged out by Kimberly Birrell 5-7 6-4 7-6(3) in Brisbane.
The world number 10 lost in three hours to the Australian wildcard as she hit 10 double faults and faced 25 break points in the match.
As for the world number 283 she came back from 5-3 down in the final set to seal one of the biggest wins of her career in a marathon match.
In other first results Karolina Pliskova survived a tough match against Yulia Putintseva in three sets while Kiki Bertens edged out world number 12 Elise Mertens.
Daria Kasatkina was looking to continue her 2018 season momentum after winning the Kremlin Cup in Moscow towards the end of last season.
A break in the first game and in the final game was enough to seal a tight opening set for the Russian who was in rusty form.
Despite Kasatkina not being at her best, Birrell played some great tennis of her own as she took advantage of the 21 year old’s poor first serves.
A break in the first game of the second set was enough for the Australian to level the match up and force a deciding set in front of a fiery Brisbane crowd.
In the final set there were a number of breaks as the 7th seed came from a break down to lead 5-3 before being broken by Birrell who would serve for the match at 6-5.
However a 6th break of serve would force a final set tiebreak as Kasatkina wasn’t willing to give up easily. But a few errors from the Russian saw Birrell take the tiebreak 7-3 and seal one of the biggest wins of her career.
It was a poor match from Kasatkina although she would have been pleased to have played three hours in her first match of the season.
But today was Birrell’s day as the 20 year old sealed the biggest win of her career so far. In the next round she will face Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko who only dropped two games against Mihaela Buzarnescu.
On first day action there were also tough three set wins for Karolina Pliskova and Kiki Bertens. The 5th seeded Czech Republican had to fight past Yulia Putintseva 4-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the second round.
While 6th seeded Bertens overcame world number 12 Elise Mertens 6-2 6-7(6) 6-4 in 2 hours and 29 minutes in what was a battle between two of 2018’s in-form stars. The Dutchwoman will now play Donna Vekic next who lost three games against Magdalena Rybarikova.
