Anna Bondar and Kimberly Birrell will face each other in the first round of the WTA Merida Open 2023 on Tuesday.
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Kimberly Birrell participated in the Australian Open’s second round to kick off the new year. For her first top 50 victory in four years, she upset world No. 29 Kaia Kanepi, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1. She has subsequently followed that up with her joint-biggest professional championship at W60 Orlando and a quarterfinal at W60 Irapuato in Mexico. She has participated in four ITF finals overall since the middle of July, which has helped her rise from outside the top 700 at the start of the 2022 season to making her debut in the top 150. The Australian has an 8-9 lifetime record in WTA competitions, including seven victories alone on home soil, and she has four last-16 appearances to her credit. She competed in her first match in eleven months in January 2022 at the 2022 Melbourne Summer Set 1 – Women’s singles, winning the first round of qualifying before falling to Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove in the next round. Birrell later advanced to the Women’s Singles Qualifying Round for the 2022 Australian Open. At the age of 17, Birrell also made her Fed Cup debut for Australia against Slovakia in February 2016. She lost 6-3, 6-1 to Dominika Cibulkova in the match’s fourth rubber after being chosen to play against her.
The Australian Open last month was where Anna Bondar earned her first professional victory at a Grand Slam competition. After beating higher-ranked Ana Bogdan in three sets, she struggled against Jelena Ostapenko in the following round. After the historic victory, she lost to Danka Kovinic in Lyon’s second round. After making it to six WTA quarterfinals in the previous season and turning the ones in Rabat and Budapest into semifinals, the Hungarian solidified her ranking in the top 100. She still favours clay courts, but her indoor quarterfinal performances in Lyon and Cluj-Napoca were her first significant success on a hard court. Both in singles and doubles, she participated in her first Grand Slam at the Australian Open. In the doubles competition at the French Open, she and Greet Minnen advanced to their first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal. At the Budapest Grand Prix, she was the ninth seed and defeated the second-seeded Martina Trevisan to advance to the semifinals without dropping a set. She thus entered the top 50 on July 18, 2022. At the 2022 Internationali Femminili di Palermo, she and Kimberley Zimmermann won her first WTA title in doubles.
| Anna Bondar vs Kimberly Birrell | Match details |
|---|---|
| Date | February 21, 2023 |
| Surface | Hard |
| Tournament | Merida Open |
| Stage | First round |
| Time (India) | 05:00 am |
| Opponent | Score |
|---|---|
| Anastasia Popatova | 5-7, 6-3, 1-6 (L) |
| Harrier Dart | 7-6, 6-4 (W) |
| Elina | 6-4, 6-2 (W) |
| Mayar Sheriff | 5-7, 4-6 (L) |
| Tamara Korpatsch | 5-7, 4-6 (L) |
| Opponent | Score |
|---|---|
| Tatjana Maria | 0-6, 3-6 (L) |
| Priscilla Hon | 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 (W) |
| Voktorija Golubic | 2-6, 6-2, 4-6 (L) |
| Emina Bektas | 6-4, 6-2 (W) |
| Ajla Tomljanovic | 5-7, 6-7 (L) |
0-0. Kimberly Birrell started travelling to Mexico last week, and she appears to be having a good time. She upset Wimbledon semifinals Tatjana Maria in Irapuato 6-2, 7-6, and now she has won qualifications for Merida over Varvara Gracheva and Elizabeth Mandlik. The higher-ranked player is Anna Bondar, but that distinction only applies on paper.
Anna Bondar and Kimberly Birrell will take on each other in the first round of the 2023 ATP Merida Open on February 21.
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