{"id":696908,"date":"2026-05-27T02:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696908\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T02:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:12:10","slug":"australias-kimberly-birrell-stuns-jessica-pegula-as-aryna-sabalenka-and-naomi-osaka-dazzle-at-french-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696908\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s Kimberly Birrell stuns Jessica Pegula as Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka dazzle at French Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimberly Birrell has become the second Australian to cause a major French Open upset after ousting fifth seed Jessica Pegula in three sets.<\/p>\n

Birrell sealed a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Pegula, who has never made it past the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros. The American has now been bounced in the first round of the French Open in three straight years.<\/p>\n

After a blazing start, Pegula lost her composure as unforced errors crept into her game, which allowed world number 83 Birrell to take control and reach at least the second round of a grand slam for the third time.<\/p>\n

Birrell, 28, will next face Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova.<\/p>\n

The victory came after fellow Australian Adam Walton shocked former world number one Daniil Medvedev<\/a> earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the women’s draw, world number one Aryna Sabalenka sealed a stylish win to make the second round of the French Open, while Naomi Osaka brought runway flair to Roland-Garros.<\/p>\n

Reigning French Open champion Coco Gauff also advanced after recovering from a sluggish start to outclass Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-0.<\/p>\n

Dressed in a black and red mesh outfit and wearing a diamond necklace, Sabalenka dismissed Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2 before brushing off concerns about the added flourish by saying she was completely at ease.<\/p>\n

\"Aryna<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka (pictured) cruised into the second round with a win over Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. (Getty Images: Franco Arland)<\/p>\n

“I like to challenge myself,” the Belarusian told reporters.<\/p>\n

“But at the same time, the dress is super light \u2026 I don’t feel the dress on me. I was thinking it’s going to be super hot wearing black, but it doesn’t feel like black colour on me, I feel really comfortable.<\/p>\n

“And the diamonds, I don’t really feel the heaviness of it, but I can imagine how it looks from the outside \u2026 for me, it’s important to look good. If I feel good looks-wise, I perform better and I feel great.”<\/p>\n

While Sabalenka set the tone, former world number one Osaka added a touch of Parisian flair as she walked onto Court Suzanne Lenglen in a sequined blouse and a black mesh floor-length train before unveiling a layered yellow-brown and gold match dress.<\/p>\n

The tennis was equally sparkling as the 16th seed overcame tricky German Laura Siegemund 6-3, 7-6(3) before hinting at the inspiration behind her match outfit.<\/p>\n

“I feel like \u2026 you know the Eiffel Tower at night when it’s sparkly? I think I look like that a bit,” Osaka said.<\/p>\n

Reuters\/ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimberly Birrell has become the second Australian to cause a major French Open upset after ousting fifth seed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4909,64,63,1805,27488,151677,28375,24143,85,747],"class_list":["post-696908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-french-open","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-kimberly-birrell","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-roland-garros","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696908","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=696908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}