Birrell, Aiava and Tomic advance in girls’ Open
Three more Australians won through to the second round of the girls’ tournament at the Australian Open On Sunday.
Melbourne VIC, Australia, 25 January 2015 | Rob Sheeley
Three more Australians won through to the second round of the girls’ tournament at the Australian Open On Sunday.
Sixth seed Kimberly Birrell, Destanee Aiava and Sara Tomic join Violet Apisah, Olivia Tjandramulia and Naiktha Bains who also advanced on Saturday.
Birrell, who made the semi-finals of the same event in 2014, was glad to be back.
“I miss this room,” the effervescent 16-year-old told the press post-match.
“It’s really good to be back, I’m really excited.”
A string of quality results, including reaching the final at Traralgon a week earlier, has Birrell primed for a repeat performance of 2014.
Her methodical 6-3 6-3 first round win over Brit Maia Lumsden lasted just 55 minutes and suggests that she is an even better player this year.
“It was a pretty solid start, I had a pretty good lead up last week so I’m feeling pretty good and I’m happy with the way I played today.
“My game has improved mentally and physically and I’m feeling good.
“This first round was definitely better than last year’s and I also did better in Traralgon than I did last year.
“I could have been a little bit more confident last year and i have definitely learnt a lot.”
Birrell reveals she has been working on almost every facet of her game both on and off the court and that she is better player for it.
“I said last year that I needed to work on my serve a lot more and i have been doing that particularly.
“Physically I have working a lot more in the gym and mentally as well, I have been working a lot more with our sports psych.
“It is maybe a better me, so it feels a little different, but I’m just really excited, like I was last year.”
She will meet German Katharina Hobgarski in the second round.
Sara Tomic caused one of the early upsets of the girls’ draw when she made light work of the 16th seed Tami Grende from Indonesia 6-3 6-1.
Tomic bludgeoned 22 winners en route to an imperious victory that too just over an hour to complete.
14-year-old Destanee Aiava came from a set down to defeat Thailand’s Tamachan Momkoonthod 5-7 6-3 6-3.
It is the second consecutive year that the local from Narre Warren has won through the opening round at Melbourne Park.
The junior tournaments continue at Melbourne Park on Monday.