Kim Birrell has been left reflecting on an emotional and thrilling breakthrough day for Australian women's tennis in south-east Asia as she scooped the first WTA title of her career while, extraordinarily, also losing her national no.1 ranking.
Birrell rocketed into the world's top-50 for the first time with her long awaited maiden triumph at the Korea Open WTA 250 event while admitting her landmark day wasn't easy as she'd had to get there by beating her Australian pal Maya Joint in the final.
Yet while the popular 28-year-old Queenslander was celebrating her victory with sympathetic words for her young tearful compatriot, she can hardly have credited that another of her friends Talia Gibson was meanwhile annexing her Australian No.1 ranking elsewhere on the Asian swing.
