Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 1 January 2025 | Dan Imhoff

Kimberly Birrell will vie for a maiden WTA 500 quarterfinal in her own backyard after springing the biggest upset of her career over second seed Emma Navarro at the Brisbane International on Wednesday.

Buoyed on by her home crowd at Pat Rafter Arena, the 113th-ranked wildcard avenged a Hong Kong defeat from October to the US Open semifinalist 7-5 7-5.

It was just her second career top-10 win after denying then-No.10 Daria Kasatkina in the opening round at the Queensland Tennis Centre in 2019.

Hometown HERO 🥺🇦🇺@kimbirrell98 scores back-to-back wins for the first time at a WTA 500 event with a huge upset over Navarro.#BrisbaneTennis pic.twitter.com/aNbQZpL2Tr

— Brisbane International (@BrisbaneTennis) January 1, 2025

“I think the biggest difference was that I had all of you guys on my side. Thank you so much,” Birrell said of squaring her head-to-head with the American.

“I’ve spent so many hours on this court since I was little. I watched the Brisbane International when I was a kid and to get to play here and have the tournament that’s basically at home is so special.

“I get to play in front of my family and my friends and it’s not very often that my players’ box is completely full, so yeah, I’m so, so happy.”

While the 26-year-old moved and swung fearlessly, her path to victory was anything but routine.

In both sets she broke to serve for it at 5-4 and on both occasions was unable to close it out at the first time of asking before steadying the ship on her second attempt.

“Obviously, a little bit of frustration because you do kind of like all the hard work, and then to get broken back right away, you know how they say, it’s not a break until you hold,” Birrell said.

“But, yeah, I just tried to not think too much about it. I think my serve, although it’s improving, it hasn’t really been one of my strengths in my game, and I think that my return is one of my strengths.

“So I kind of just put that previous game the back of my mind and move on, and great, now I get to return, I feel comfortable, I know what I need to do.”

The win marked a full-circle moment for the Queenslander after a serious elbow injury led to an extended time out of competition only six months after her win over Kasatkina in Brisbane six years ago.

“Obviously didn’t expect to be out injured for so long … There were definitely periods where I didn’t know if I was going to get back on court let alone at the level I played today,” she said.

“So I’m really glad that I persevered and so lucky to have amazing friends and family that helped me during that period to get back to where I am today.”

Victory set a third-round clash with Anastasia Potapova, a straight-sets winner over last year’s Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska.

Another Aussie, Aleksandar Vukic, challenged defending champion Grigor Dimitrov in the very next match at Pat Rafter Arena.

Dimitrov needed five match points to eventually seal a 6-2 7-6(5) win.

Nick Kyrgios’ Brisbane International campaign also came to an end when he and Novak Djokovic lost their doubles quarterfinal 6-2 3-6 [10-8] to top seeds Nikola Mektic and Michael Venus.