Melbourne, Australia , 14 February 2021 | Leigh Rogers

Australian women continue to impress at this week’s Phillip Island Trophy, with Kimberly Birrell, Ajla Tomljanovic and Maddison Inglis all progressing to the second round.

The Phillip Island Trophy is a WTA 250 tournament, which is being played concurrently with the Australian Open at Melbourne Park this week.

Birrell scored her first tour-level win since Australian Open 2019, eliminating 15th-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet today in the opening round of the Melbourne Summer Series event.

The 6-2 7-5 victory over the world No.54 is the fifth top-100 win of Birrell’s career. It is also the 22-year-old’s first win in a comeback from elbow surgery, which sidelined her for 20 months.

Birrell, who made her return earlier this month and is contesting only her third tournament since Wimbledon 2019, plays world No.181 Indian qualifier Ankita Raina in the second round.

Tomljanovic proved too strong for fellow Australian Lizette Cabrera, winning their opening-round clash in straight sets.

The world No.72 was forced to fight hard to earn a second-round showdown with No.7 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Tomljanovic was broken when serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set – she recovered though, winning the next game to close out victory after one hour and 28 minutes on court.

Inglis recorded her first ever WTA main draw win, with the 23-year-old from Western Australia defeating world No.158 Kamilla Rakhimova in straight sets.

Queensland teen Olivia Gadecki also achieved a career-best result today, scoring a stunning second-round victory today against top seed Sofia Kenin. It is the 18-year-old’s first career top-100 win.

> READ: Unranked Gadecki defeats world No.4 Kenin

PHILLIP ISLAND TROPHY

TODAY’S RESULTS

Women’s singles, first round
[WC] Kimberly Birrell (AUS) d [15] Alize Cornet (FRA) 6-2 7-5
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) d [Q] Lizette Cabrera (AUS) 6-3 6-4
Maddison Inglis (AUS) d Kamilla Rakhimova (RUS) 6-3 6-3

Women’s singles, second round
[WC] Olivia Gadecki (AUS) d [1] Sofia Kenin (USA) 2-6 7-6(4) 6-4

Women’s doubles, first round
Vera Lapko (BLR)/Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR) d [WC] Destanee Aiava (AUS)/Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz (AUS) 6-0 6-4
Petra Martic (CRO)/Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) d [WC] Alexandra Osborne (AUS)/Astra Sharma (AUS) 6-2 6-4

COMING UP

Women’s singles, second round
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) v [7] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
Maddison Inglis (AUS) v [5] Wang Qiang (CHN)
[WC] Kimberly Birrell (AUS) v [Q] Ankita Raina (IND)

Women’s singles, third round
[WC] Olivia Gadecki (AUS) v TBC

Women’s doubles, first round
Lizette Cabrera (AUS)/Maddison Inglis (AUS) v Anna Blinkova (RUS)/Anastasia Potapova (AUS)
[WC] Kimberly Birrell (AUS)/Olivia Gadecki (AUS) v Marie Bouzkova (CZE)/Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP)
[WC] Gabriella Da Silva-Fick (AUS)/Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) v [8] Misaki Doi (JPN)/Nao Hibino (JPN)