Navarro surprised by a guest in Brisbane, the journey of the Djokovic-Kyrgios pair ends

The Australian Kimberly Birrellbeneficiary of a wild card, created a surprise by eliminating the American Emma Navarro Wednesday in the second round of the WTA 500 tournament in Brisbane, while the doubles course of the pair formed by Novak Djokovic et Nick Kyrgios ended.

On the Pat Rafter Arena, Birrell, 113th in the WTA rankings, won 7-5, 7-5 in front of the 8th in the world.

Navarro is coming off a very successful 2024 season, notably reaching the semi-final at the US Open, and the obstacle represented by the 26-year-old Australian, who has never managed to enter the Top 100 since her debut on the circuit ten years ago, did not seem likely to pose any problems for him.

But Birrell was able to draw on the support of the local public and was not intimidated by the pedigree of her opponent.

“I think it's kind of like one of those situations where you don't have a choice, you just have to go for it,” she explained.

“That's a bit of the attitude I had today. I think it was very beneficial to me, as well as the fact of having played a lot of hours on this field”, underlined Birrell.

In the next round, she will face the Russian Anastasia Potapova35th in the world.

In the men's table, the defending champion Grigor Dimitrov easily dismissed another Australian player invited by the organizers, Aleksandar Vukic6-2, 7-6 (7/5).

The Bulgarian, world No.10, also won in Brisbane in 2017 and lost a final there in 2012, against the Briton Andy Murraynow retired.

In doubles, after a victory obtained by snatch in the first round, the duo formed by the Serb Novak Djokovic and the Australian Nick Kyrgios was eliminated on the wire by a very experienced pair composed of the New Zealander Michael Venus and Croatian Nikola Mektic 6-2, 3-6, 10/8.

Venus and Mektic came back from three points behind to win the match in the super tie-break.

“They hit some amazing shots,” Venus said. “Leading by three points in the tie-break, with the way they served, it wasn't very pleasing, but we managed to get back into the match,” he said.

In the singles table, Djokovic will now face Frenchman Gaël Monfils.