Teenage wildcard Emerson Jones has scored a coming-of-age victory over Tatjana Maria \u2013 a player more than twice her age \u2013 in her Brisbane International debut under the lights at Pat Rafter Arena on Monday night.<\/p>\n
The 147th-ranked Australian rose to the occasion before her home crowd for her second top-50 win, a 6-3 6-3 victory against the slicing and dicing German veteran some 21 years her senior.<\/p>\n
Jones had joked \u201cshe has kids and I\u2019m a kid\u201d ahead of the clash but competed with the fearlessness of youth against a style of player whivh she admitted she was not used to facing.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 75-minute result capped a successful day for her fellow Gold Coast players Kimberly Birrell and Olivia Gadecki, who also reached the second round.<\/p>\n
Birrell took down Slovakian qualifier Rebecca Sramkova to set a clash against No.2 seed Amanda Anisimova, while qualifier Gadecki eased past American Ann Li to book a meeting with sixth seed Mirra Andreeva.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just super happy. This is honestly the best tournament, the best crowd,\u201d a beaming Jones said after she set a clash against 10th seed Liudmila Samsonova. \u201cI\u2019m so happy my family got to come tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest her game was a bit tricky for my game, but I\u2019m so happy I got it done. She\u2019s an amazing player and very experienced. Obviously, I don\u2019t have that experience yet but I\u2019m super happy with how I played.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones struck 35 winners \u2013 more than double her opponent\u2019s 11 \u2013 and 18 unforced errors, while she broke on six of seven opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Top seed Medvedev clears Hungarian hurdle under lights<\/p>\n
Former world No.1 Daniil Medvedev understands any new relationship takes time to build rapport.<\/p>\n
After opting to keep on former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson into 2026, the signs are already promising for the burgeoning partnership following a hasty opening victory over Marton Fucsovics at the Brisbane International on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Johannson was added to the fray ahead of last year\u2019s Asian swing and the arrangement quickly bore success after Medvedev ended a title drought of more than two years in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
The Swede, a champion at Melbourne Park in 2002, had every reason to nod his approval after his charge cruised past Hungarian Fucsovics 6-2 6-3 at Pat Rafter Arena. That rapport continued to build.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly [it\u2019s been] great because last year when we started it was kind of a test period,\u201d Medvedev said. \u201cWe had end of the season to see if it would work out or not or if I\u2019d want to change, but it was working great in terms of results and in terms of relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cOff court and on court we understand each other. [We\u2019ll] keep working hard and was a great pre-season so looking forward to the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 69-minute win improved his ledger against Fucsovics to 5-1 and set a showdown with former world No.10 Frances Tiafoe, a 6-2 6-2 winner over local Aleksandar Vukic a day prior.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to play with the same score [as Tiafoe\u2019s result] and then I lost my serve serving for the match, so I was a bit disappointed,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to go to the match with exactly the same conditions as him.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrances is a great player. Always tough to play against him. I\u2019m sure he doesn\u2019t want to play me either so I\u2019m looking forward to a great match. It\u2019ll be a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, French qualifier Quentin Halys extended his unbeaten run to 3-0 and a third different surface against Australian Alexei Popyrin.<\/p>\n
Having previously beaten the world No.50 on clay and grass, the 29-year-old added a hard-court win at Pat Rafter Arena, 5-7 6-3 6-4.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defending champ Lehecka picks up where he left off<\/p>\n
Jiri Lehecka feels it\u2019s great to be tested early in his Brisbane International title defence but even better to come out on top after withstanding the threat of compatriot Tomas Machac on Monday.<\/p>\n
While only 13 months apart in age, two of the brightest Czech prospects had never squared off until their first-round showdown at Pat Rafter Arena.<\/p>\n
The reigning champion did not have it all his own way against the world No.32 but after two hours and 24 minutes closed out a 6-4 6-7(5) 6-2 victory, his first of 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy to be back on this court is just amazing. I remember last year it\u2019s been one of the best moments of my life here, so I\u2019m very grateful to be back,\u201d the No.3 seed said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never easy. We know each other for so many years since we were kids. We actually practised together a lot before coming here to Brisbane. These matches are never easy but yeah, it\u2019s been a great match. I think the level was high for the first match of the season for both of us \u2026 I\u2019m on my way again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A triumphant start to last season at the Queensland Tennis Centre was not the first time Lehecka had landed a trophy Down Under.<\/p>\n
A year before, he held off Jack Draper for his maiden title in Adelaide. Something about Australia worked in the 24-year-old\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to know that as well, but I think the weather, the people and the court conditions,\u201d he said after he booked a second-round meeting against American Sebastian Korda. \u201cThere\u2019s just something I\u2019m looking forward to every year when we\u2019re starting the year in Australia. I think there is no better place to start the season than here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, Kimberly Birrell relished her return to Pat Rafter Arena where she ground out a 6-4 3-6 6-3 victory over Slovak qualifier Rebecca Sramkova.<\/p>\n
A year ago, Birrell opened with a bang when she saw off No.2 seed Emma Navarro en route to her maiden WTA 500 quarterfinal and on Sunday she kept hopes alive of a repeat last-eight appearance at her home training base.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo special, I just love being here. I love playing here and it means the world to me,\u201d\u00a0Birrell said.\u00a0\u201cI feel so grateful to come from such an amazing state and I just feel all the love, all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t miss out on the chance to be part of one of the most exciting tournaments of the year. Tickets for the Brisbane International are on sale via\u00a0Ticketmaster<\/a>. Prices start at $30. Premium Experiences are on sale via\u00a0Ticketmaster and the Premium Experiences Team.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teenage wildcard Emerson Jones has scored a coming-of-age victory over Tatjana Maria \u2013 a player more than twice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,176511,66054,72820,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-394024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brisbane-international-tennis-tournament","11":"tag-emerson-jones","12":"tag-news-article","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}