Aussie battlers stun superstars! Wildcard Adam Walton, world No.83 Kim Birrell unleash incredible French Open upsets

Fresh from taking down a grand slam champion at Roland Garros, Adam Walton suspects he might make the local paper in the sugarcane town of Home Hill.

As the Queenslander said after defeating world No.1 Daniil Medvedev 6-2 1-6 6-1 1-6 6-4 in 3hr 28min, his journey from the Burdekin River delta to the big time courts in professional tennis is “pretty cool”.

Fellow Aussie Kimberly Birrell then stepped up to produce the biggest upset so far in the women’s draw, with the world No.83 shocking No.5 Jessica Pegula 1-6 6-3 6-3 in the first round. It was Birrell’s first win over a top-five player and just her third victory at a grand slam.

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Walton first picked up a racquet in the town with a population of just under 3000 people before moving to Brisbane aged 14 to board. A promising talent, he earned a scholarship to the University of Tennessee before turning professional.

“I mean, I think it will probably be in the newspaper tomorrow morning,” he said.

“It’s great. I haven’t been back there for a while, but obviously (I) have so many connections with the local club there. I think it’s just a pretty cool story to have been brought up in Home Hill and then moved to Brisbane, then moved to America and now be playing (as a) pro, it is a pretty cool story.”

On the same day Australia’s top man Alex de Minaur received a walkover into the third round, Walton picked a fine time to clinch his first ever win over a top 10 rival when pulling off a massive comeback in the deciding set against the three-time Australian Open finalist, a player Novak Djokovic described two days ago as playing the best he has.

While drawing a player with the experience of the No.6 seed is far from ideal, he took confidence from knowing he had edged the Russian star in the Cincinnati Masters last year and pushed him again in October in Kazakhstan.

The first four sets of the opening round match were lopsided and the fifth looked to be heading the same way when Medvedev, who received a pep talk from his wife Daria in the infancy of the match, broke the Australian early.

But Walton, who received the Tennis Australia wildcard into the French Open, rallied strongly from 2-4 down to level and then survived a testing service game of his own at 4-all, in which he saved two break points, to edge ahead.

In a remarkable finale, the 27-year-old was able to break the frazzled Medvedev, who was described as playing better than ever just two days earlier by Novak Djokovic, to love to clinch the biggest win of his career.

On posting his triumph on the famous stadium court, Walton put his hands to his head in disbelief and, after shaking hands with his rival, rushed to his supporters courtside to celebrate.

He later said his ability to hold serve when trailing 1-3 in the fifth set when saving a string of break points proved critical to his ability to stay in the match.

“He was playing pretty well (and) making a lot of first serves, and he was liking my ball, but I knew I just had to hang tough,” Walton said.

“I thought the 3-1 game, I faced some break points there, and if I go down 4-1 it is a double-break it’s going to be pretty tough from there. So getting that hold and definitely just keeping the score close (was important). I knew if I just kept fighting, maybe, maybe I would get a chance and ... I’m glad I did.”

Pitted against one of the world’s leading defenders, Walton produced a well-balanced match, with his all-court game and exceptional movement frustrating the mercurial Medvedev, whose frustration bubbled over on occasion.

Midway through a first set dominated by the Australian, Medvedev began complaining about the heat, but his wife Daria was having none of it, telling the 2021 US Open winner it was the same for everyone.

Although the temperature of 32C may not sound extreme by Aussie standards, those in attendance from Melbourne in Victoria to Melbourne in Florida and everywhere in between found it stifling.

It prompted Paris officials to issue a severe heat warning, though Walton was more than happy with the sizzling temperature.

And he had the benefit of belief, having previously edged the Russian star in the Cincinnati Masters last year.

“It’s definitely hotter than previous years that I’ve played here, but ... we grow up in the heat, we like the heat,” he said.

“It makes the ball move faster through the air, which I think helped my game today. So I really like it when it’s hot in Paris.”

Medvedev was not enamoured with his form but credited the underdog with rising to the occasion when it mattered.

“(It was) not an easy match. I didn’t play my best tennis,” he said.

“He played good some moments, some moments not that good, and I managed to take the match when he didn’t play that well. That’s it. I didn’t manage to raise my level enough to win the whole match, and that’s why I lost.”

Despite his complaints about the heat in the infancy of the match, he said more pertinent to his struggles was the 11am timing - clearly he is not a morning man - and the fact it was his opening match.

“Every tournament has a different court, different balls, different ... what else? I mean, I can be different every day,” he said.

“I don’t like to (get) up early, and I’m usually less performative when I (get) up at 6:15 in the morning. I like to sleep in. So this is just part of a small ... let’s say, in tennis you need to adapt to the things, and sometimes I’m not good enough to adapt to it, and sometimes I am. That’s basically all I can tell you.”

It is an important win for Walton for more than just notching a top 10 scalp as he seeks to cement his spot in the top 100.

In recent weeks he has criss-crossed continents chasing ranking points in a bid to secure direct entry into Wimbledon, a goal he has ticked off, and he has taken a good step forward to securing the same at the US Open as well.

“The decision to go play the challengers in Asia was always set in stone. I was trying to chase the Wimbledon cut,” he said.

“I was actually needing a fair few points to be able to make the main draw (and) then the decision to leave Asia after the first week to head to Madrid was purely just because I got into the main draw, and we saw it as a great chance with Madrid being a bit of altitude, and the conditions being right.

“I was going to get there with plenty of time, so I wouldn’t have been that jet lagged. The hardest sort of part from that was to come back to China after that tournament. I got ... really lucky. I won three matches in a row 7-6 in the third to be able to make a final there, and just got over the line for the Wimbledon main draw cut. Had I not gone to Asia, I don’t know if I would have got the 60, 70 points that I needed.”

His immediate reward is a clash with American Zach Svadja, who ousted another Australian Alexei Popyrin 6-3 3-6 7-6 (3) 7-5.

The Australian, a former Roland Garros boys champion, will lament a string of missed opportunities as the match tightened, which included an errant drop shot when serving to force a deciding set.

Popyrin was ranked a career-high 19 at the start of last August but has since slumped to the mid-80s, based on a live estimate, and cut a dejected soul as he assessed how to turn around a form slump.

“We’ll see. I don’t know yet. I’m not sure. It is too close to the match,” he said.

“I think I’m still a little bit emotional, so I don’t want to make an emotional decision at all in terms of what I’m going to do, in terms of schedules, in terms of anything, actually. So I’m just going to take some time, cool off a little bit, and then we’ll see what I’ll do.”

De Minaur, meanwhile, was due to play talented Belgian Alexander Blockx, who he edged in a clash in Monte Carlo at the start of the clay court season.

But the rising star injured an ankle while practising on Tuesday and was forced to withdraw from the second round match that had been scheduled for 11am (7pm AEST) on Wednesday.

The No. 8 seed has the benefit of skipping what is predicted to be another stifling day in Paris and will await the winner of a clash between 26th seed Jakub Mensik and Mariano Navone, an Argentinian with strong clay court credentials.

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