Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Australia’s female uprising is real.
Maya Joint and Kim Birrell both rallied from a set down to reach the US Open’s second round on Tuesday (AEST), a day after wildcard Taylah Preston avoided a day-one wipeout for the country with her maiden grand slam win outside Australia.
Resurgent veteran James Duckworth made it four Australians through with the biggest scalp of the quartet, outlasting Italy’s No.30 seed Matteo Arnaldi, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (10-8), across three and a half hours for his first US Open victory in four years.
Duckworth hit 16 aces and came back from a 4-1 fourth-set deficit, including staving off Arnaldi’s six set points. Three of those came consecutively from 0-40 in the 12th game of the set.
The 34-year-old unleashed a tirade of forehands at eight-all in the tiebreak to earn his second match point – this time on serve – before putting away an overhead, after which he let out a guttural roar.
Four years removed from his career-best ranking and after nine surgeries, Duckworth is trending towards a top-50 return.
The New York major is also providing a platform to illustrate Australia’s blossoming prospects on the women’s side, which has been years in the making.
Joint, Talia Gibson and Preston are all aged 22 or younger and have broken inside the top 100 in the past 18 months, while Emerson Jones, 18, was the junior world No.1 and is not far from joining them.
Joint, whose own form revival kick-started at Wimbledon when she spoiled Serena Williams’ comeback, had lost twice to Russian Liudmila Samsonova – most recently in Toronto a few weeks ago – and seemed headed down the same path when she convincingly lost the opening set.
The 20-year-old Michigan-born Australian peaked inside the world’s top 30 in February, but tumbled in the rankings amid a slump where she lost 13 of 14 matches before the Serena showdown.
Joint might not quite be back to her 2025 level, but the arrow is pointing up.
Her renewed confidence was on show as she steamrolled Samsonova 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, after Birrell completed her own comeback in a rain-delayed triumph over Croatia’s Petra Marcinko, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.
Joint broke Samsonova in the third and seventh games of the second set – while crucially staving off three break-back points in between – but the contest was effectively decided early in the final set.
She came out swinging and immediately broke the Russian to begin the decider, but slumped to 0-40 on her own serve. Samsonova failed to make a return on the next four points then could not convert another break point in the same game as Joint escaped for a 2-0 lead.
Joint’s winners continued to flow, but she committed only seven unforced errors across the final two sets after gifting Samsonova 16 in the first set.
With her game tightened, she never gave Samsonova another look-in as she locked in a second-round date with ninth seed Elina Svitolina, of Ukraine.
Birrell is part of a previous generation that had similarly bright hopes to the current crop, but as a group has mostly been unable to realise that potential. At 28 years old, she is playing the best tennis of her life.
Facing a fourth straight first-round defeat at the US Open, Birrell reversed her fortunes with a typically gutsy performance to overcome Marcinko in three sets and win for the first time in New York.
Birrell, who overcame two career-threatening elbow surgeries before she even threatened to be a top-100 player, has now won at least one match at all four grand slams.
She saved a match point before rain intervened on Monday, and only sharpened her resolve on resumption against an opponent who boasted more power but arguably less willingness to fight.
Birrell reeled off four consecutive points to snatch the second-set tiebreak, then broke Marcinko in the third game of the final set before determinedly staving off three break-back points in the next game, including two from rare aces.
It was not the last time the dogged Australian had to dodge trouble, but she is made for those moments.
Birrell was spared from having to serve the contest out when Marcinko double-faulted to go match-point down before putting one last forehand into the net to send Team Birrell into raptures.
But Aleks Vukic could not replicate her feat, going down in five sets – 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 – to new Japanese rising star Rei Sakamoto, who ended his great countryman Kei Nishikori’s grand slam career in qualifying and appears poised to become a tour force in the years ahead.
Former junior world No.1 Sakamoto looked on the verge of collapsing physically when the fifth set started a day earlier but re-energised his hopes with a series of big and bold shots to break Vukic in the opening game.
The 20-year-old never let Vukic back in, not offering the Australian even a single break point in the decider.
Rinky Hijikata was tied at one set all with third-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime when rain interrupted play on Tuesday (AEST) while the scoreline was similar in Popyrin’s match against Grigor Dimitrov.
Top seed Aryna Sabalenka’s bid for a title three-peat began with a 6-2, 6-4 demolition of Camila Osorio, but her world No.1 ranking remains under serious threat from Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff.
Seven-time grand slam champion and 2025 winner Carlos Alcaraz beat Roman Safiullin 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in his first match since April after an extended layoff with a wrist injury.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen in the match, after four-and-a-half months [out] almost … but I just try to play one game at a time and feel good, to enjoy playing points,” Alcaraz said.
“After the match, my body felt great.”
The day’s biggest upset came courtesy of Greek former world No.3 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who defied his run of outs to oust Arthur Fils in four sets.
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