Australian Open 2025 LIVE updates: Aussie Birrell’s fairytale ends; Roddick slams ‘hypocrite’ Kyrgios; Demon leads tonight’s charge

Australian Kimberly Birrell has gone down in straight sets to Germany’s Eva Lys, after fighting hard to progress through all three of the tournament’s qualifying rounds.

It’s a disappointing end to Birrell’s Australian run. But Lys was sharper on court today, and managed to claim a 6-2, 6-2 victory in 1 hour and 10 minutes.

The Gold Coast local toppled three players last week, including fellow Australian Priscilla Hon, to reach the main draw of her home slam.

She has been in good form recently, entering the top 100 for the first time, and making the quarter-final at the Brisbane International.

Lys, who is a lucky loser in the tournament, originally had a flight booked home for tomorrow morning. She only found out she would be playing 5 minutes before this match, she said.

“Kim is such an amazing person… she was preparing the whole time to play against a different opponent. It wasn’t easy for her.”

It was always going to be a tough ask for Emerson Jones to stand up to world No. 6 Elena Rybakina, and in the end the more experienced player prevails in the first set.

Rybakina, a former Wimbledon champion, takes the first set 6-1 in 26 minutes.

Some promising signs from Jones though, and she almost got one of her breaks back on the last Rybakina service game, but the Kazakhstani proved too strong for the Aussie junior.

Let’s head to Margaret Court Arena now, where the world No.1 ranked junior Emerson Jones is taking on sixth seed Elena Rybakina.

Jones, an Australian prodigy, is making her first grand slam singles main draw appearance, but she has previously made the junior finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2024.

She’s currently down in the first set, with Rybakina leading 5-1 and on serve. Jones will need to dig deep from here.

Over on court 3, the elder statesman Gael Monfils has clutched a second set. He clearly hasn’t been too perturbed by the bullet serve of Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

The tall 21-year-old managed to push Monfils to a tie-break in the first set, but won only three games in the second.

Perhaps the issue lies in that superpower serve. 63 per cent of his first serves have gone in across the match, and he’s made 11 double faults.

The third set is currently tied at two games apiece.

Back to KIA Arena now, where Kimberly Birrell has lost the first set 6-2 to Eva Lys.

Birrell struggled with her first serve, with Lys happy to capitalise on the Australian’s weaker second serve.

Both players have briefly left the court for a break. Birrell has been the in-form Australian woman leading into the Open, but she’ll need to dig deep to take the next two sets.

Ten-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic has taken to social media to give a thumbs up to his first-round opponent, American teenager Nishesh Basavareddy.

“Great to be back in Melbourne. Well played, @nishesh05, impressive slam debut,” Djokovic wrote on Instagram with a clap emoji.“Onwards to R2…”

Wildcard Basavareddy dreamed of playing the former world No. 1, then had the perfect start with victory in the first set, before eventually losing 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

“He was the better player for a set-and-a-half, and he deserved every bit of applause he got when he was exiting the court,” Djokovic said after the match.

“To be really honest with you, I’d never seen him play up until three or four days ago. I didn’t know much about him, and these types of match-ups are always tricky.

Djokovic, who is on the hunt for his 25th grand slam title, will face Jaime Faria of Portugal in the second round on Wednesday.

Speaking of Navarro, the American has fought back from a set down to defeat fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 in a 3 hours and 20 minutes thriller.

It looked like an upset was on the cards, when Stearns took the first set and a lead in the second, but the world No. 8 fought her way back into the match to claim the first-round victory.

And Navarro has managed to accomplish another goal, too.

“This is my last of the grand slam centrr courts to tick off, so it’s pretty cool,” Navarro said during her post-match interview. I wonder if she preferred playing on Rod Laver Arena or Arthur Ashe?

Navarro will face China’s Xiyu Wang in the second round.

Over to KIA Arena now, where Australian Kim Birrell has begun her Australian Open campaign.

Birrell wasn’t given a wildcard and battled her way through qualifying to get into the main draw, following an epic run at the Brisbane International, which included a win over world No. 8 Emma Navarro.

Birrell is taking on lucky loser Eva Lys from Germany, but things aren’t going well for her in this first set. She’s already down two breaks and trails 5-2 after 25 minutes.