Kim Birrell is lighting it up in the City of Lights, and attributes part of her astonishing breakthrough triumph at the French Open to feeling Paris is like a second home.
On Tuesday, Gold Coast's former Australian No.1 sensationally knocked out No.5 seed Jessica Pegula with the win of her career, cheered on Roland Garros's famed greenhouse arena, Court Simonne Mathieu, by her close 'Paris family'.
That's the family of her mum's best friend, with whom Birrell stays whenever she's in the French capital, and she swears it's just the added edge she needs as she seeks to make the third round in a slam for the first time by defeating Ukraine's Oleksandra Oliynykova on Thursday.
