Kim Birrell Breaks New York Hoodoo with US Open Win
Kim Birrell woke up in the dark in New York, wide awake at 5am, heart racing, hours before she was due back on court. A 14-hour rain delay had stretched a tense first-round scrap into a two-day ordeal. Sleep was a battle. So was the match.
By late afternoon, both had been won – and with them, a life-changing US Open breakthrough.
The 28-year-old from the Gold Coast stared down a match point, a restless night and her own Flushing Meadows history to grind past Croatian Petra Marcinko 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 and finally reach the second round after three straight first-round exits in New York.
On a day when Maya Joint and James Duckworth also surged into round two, it was Birrell who carried the story, and the emotion.
A hoodoo broken on Court 7
Birrell had walked back onto Court 7 knowing the script all too well. Three previous years, three opening-round defeats. This time, the tension had been stretched by the weather, the match suspended with everything on edge.
When she faced match point in the 12th game of the second set on Sunday, the familiar dread hovered. She saved it. Still, she trailed by a set and a mini-break in the tiebreak. The margins were brutal. One more slip and the hoodoo lived on.
Instead, the match flipped.
Birrell clawed her way through the breaker 7-4, then rode the surge. The legs looked lighter, the forehand heavier, the belief louder. She wore Marcinko down in the decider, closing out 6-3 to bank one of the most satisfying wins of her career.
It came with an extra layer of personal history. Two months earlier on the Eastbourne grass, Marcinko had handled Birrell in straight sets. Back in February, their first meeting in Texas had started with Birrell dropping the opening set 6-0 before turning it around. Their rivalry already carried scars on both sides. This time, it was Birrell’s turn to walk away with the bigger prize.
“That’s crazy,” she told AAP, still processing the fact that the victory guarantees her $US190,000 ($A265,000), with more on offer if she can upset Russian world No 19 Ekaterina Alexandrova in the next round.
From mortgage stress to honeymoon plans
The win doesn’t just shift a ranking or a line in a record book. It shifts real life.
Birrell and her coach, Matt Fraser, are in the middle of planning their wedding in Kingscliff later this year. The cheque, she admitted, will land in very practical places.
“Oh my gosh, I don’t think I’ll be spending it here,” she said. “I’ll definitely save some of it. We’re getting married at the end of the year so that helps a lot and maybe I’ll buy some extra flowers.
“And we’ve got a mortgage. Yeah, the mortgage.”
The numbers on the court look just as good. Birrell is projected to jump 16 places to a career-high world No 55, which would see her overtake Talia Gibson as Australia’s new No 1. A player who once seemed stuck on the outside of the sport’s biggest stages now stands as the country’s standard-bearer in New York.
A big day for the Aussies
Birrell wasn’t the only Australian rewriting the mood of her season.
Maya Joint, the 20-year-old who had endured a brutal start to 2026, found something like freedom against Liudmila Samsonova. Having lost 13 of 14 matches since January, Joint looked headed for another long day when she dropped the opening set 3-6 to the higher-ranked Russian.
Then the tension snapped.
Joint surged through the next two sets 6-2, 6-2, her game suddenly matching the promise that had seemed buried under months of frustration. The turnaround through the American hardcourt swing has been sharp; now she earns a shot at ninth seed Elina Svitolina, and a chance to see just how far this revival can run.
On the men’s side, James Duckworth produced the sort of stubborn, seasoned performance that has defined his career.
Turning 35 in January, the Sydneysider finally ticked off a personal milestone: he has now reached the second round at all four grand slams. It came the hard way, with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (10-8) comeback win over 30th seed Matteo Arnaldi, the 2026 French Open semi-finalist.
Duckworth dropped the first set, then tightened his patterns, took control of the baseline and refused to let go. The fourth-set tiebreak stretched and strained before he edged it 10-8, sealing a victory that felt like a career box finally checked. Next up is China’s Yibing Wu and, with it, a genuine shot at the last 32.
They follow WA rising star Taylah Preston, who had already booked her place in round two, turning day two into a statement for the Australian contingent.
Not every story finished with a smile. Aleksandar Vukic, locked in his own weather-delayed marathon against Rei Sakamoto, eventually fell 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. The margins, again, were thin.
But the day belonged to Birrell, who woke before dawn with nerves jangling, walked back into a storm of her own making, and walked out with a mortgage eased, a wedding boosted and a long-standing New York curse finally broken.
Next, Alexandrova. A top-20 opponent, a chance to push deeper into the second week conversation, and another opportunity to see just how far this new version of Kim Birrell can go.
