{"id":875904,"date":"2026-09-01T06:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875904\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T06:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:42:14","slug":"us-open-stunned-after-aussie-underdogs-knock-out-massive-names-for-1-3-million-payday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875904\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open stunned after Aussie underdogs knock out massive names for $1.3 million payday"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Duckworth and Alexei Popyrin have starred on a remarkable day for Australian tennis<\/a> at the US Open<\/a> to join Kim Birrell and Maya Joint in advancing to the second round. And with Taylah Preston already winning through on Monday, they’ve snared a combined $1.325 million (and maybe more).<\/p>\n

Duckworth caused a major boilover by knocking out men’s 30th seed and French Open semi-finalist Matteo Arnaldi<\/a>. The Aussie underdog continued a red-hot run of form to shock his Italian opponent with a 5-7 6-3 6-2 7-6 (10-8) comeback victory.<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/p>\n

Maya Joint, James Duckworth and Alexei Popyrin all won their first-round matches at the US Open. Image: Getty<\/p>\n

Popyrin’s victory was just as impressive, taking down former World No.3 and grand slam semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov. The World No.130 has endured a wretched run of form and injuries, but is back in the winner’s circle at grand slam level after a 3-6 6-3 6-2 6-2 triumph.<\/p>\n

Birrell saved a match point and a restless night’s sleep to finally break through for her maiden singles victory at the US Open. The World No.71 beat Petra Marcinko 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 after the match had been suspended overnight due to rain. It was Birrell’s first win at the US Open after losing all three of her previous tournament openers – in 2023, 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

The brilliant day continued when Joint beat Liudmila Samsonova 3-6 6-2 6-2. Joint rallied to take out the higher-ranked Russian to continue her revival after a horror start to 2026.<\/p>\n

Preston had earlier won her first-round match on Monday, making it five Aussies into the second round after the first two days. Their reward is a guaranteed $AU265,000 payday each – and even more if they can get to the third round.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

Matt Fraser and Kim Birrell have $265,000 more than they bargained for. (Photo by Graham Denholm\/Getty Images for Tennis Australia)<\/p>\n

Birrell is due to marry her coach Matt Fraser and reckons the massive cheque will go nicely on their honeymoon. “Oh my gosh, I don’t think I’ll be spending it here,” she told AAP in New York.<\/p>\n

“I’ll definitely save some of it. We’re getting married at the end of the year so that helps a lot and maybe I’ll buy some extra flowers. And we’ve got a mortgage. Yeah, the mortgage.”<\/p>\n

Rinky Hijikata wasn’t as fortunate, going down in four sets against third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime. And Aleksandar Vukic lost a marathon in five sets against Rei Sakamoto after it too was postponed overnight.<\/p>\n

Wins for Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz made a winning return after a four-month absence with a wrist injury. The Spaniard beat Russia’s Roman Safiullin 6-4 6-4 6-4 to pass his first test with flying colours.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a really tough five months for me,” Alcaraz said. “Being able to step on the Arthur Ashe, being able to compete again, I couldn’t decide to come back in a better tournament. It’s a really special place for me.”<\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz made a winning start to his US Open title defence. (Photo by Caleb Bowlin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka started her bid for a rare US Open three-peat with a comfortable 6-2 6-4 victory over Camila Osorio. “She brought the fight,” Sabalenka said. “She battled really well and I just tried to stay as aggressive as possible.<\/p>\n

“I think I played great. She’s a tough opponent, makes you work really hard to get every point, so I’m happy that I was able to close the match in straight sets.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Duckworth and Alexei Popyrin have starred on a remarkable day for Australian tennis at the US Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10968,445613,6569,38872,81,445607,445609,962,445606,445610,8083,43,70624,71955,445612,140960,31229,13052,44,259954,38769,147813,198194,445608,41,39,42,40,445611],"class_list":["post-875904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-10968","tag-30th","tag-alcaraz","tag-alexei-popyrin","tag-australian","tag-birrell","tag-caleb-bowlin","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-duckworth","tag-getty-images-for-tennis-australia","tag-graham-denholm","tag-headlines","tag-james-duckworth","tag-kim-birrell","tag-matt-fraser","tag-matteo-arnaldi","tag-maya-joint","tag-monday","tag-news","tag-petra-marcinko","tag-preston","tag-sabalenka","tag-taylah-preston","tag-the-world-no-130","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world-no-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875904","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=875904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}