An emotional Kim Birrell has admitted she was rattled by a last-minute change of opponent as she crashed out of the Australian Open in hugely disappointing fashion.
While Alex de Minaur had a straight sets win over Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp on Tuesday night, there wasn't a lot for locals to cheers about with Alexei Popyrin, Rinky Hijikata and Olivia Gadecki all joining the first round exodus.
After winning her way into the main draw through qualifying, the Australian No.1 had been preparing for what shaped as a difficult first-round encounter with 13th seed Anna Kalinskaya.
But only minutes before taking to Kia Arena, Birrell learnt that the Russian had withdrawn due to illness, and she would instead be facing qualifying lucky loser Eva Lys from Germany.
It all quickly went south from there.
Birrell only held serve once in eight attempts as she crashed out 6-2 6-2 to the free-swinging German, almost without firing a shot.
"Absolutely (it threw me)," said Birrell, who was unable to hold back the tears in her post-match press conference.
"I had prepared to play Anna, who's a really amazing player.
"I knew that I was in for a battle against her, and I had done my research and spoke a lot with my team but, unfortunately, that isn't who I faced today.
"Then to find out that she withdrew and that I was playing someone completely different, it did rattle me.
"But in saying that, she was in the same position as me - she didn't know who she was going to be playing, so we were both put in pretty tough situations.
"I take responsibility for not handling that, and credit to her."
Teenaged star Emerson Jones was also handed a brutal reality check on her grand slam debut, going down 6-1 6-1 to No.6 seed Elena Rybakina.
The 2022 Wimbledon champ showed no mercy to the 16-year-old Australian wildcard, closing out the match in 53 minutes.
Rybakina still found time to praise her young opponent.
"She is very young and I think she has a great future and many more years on tour, but I'm pretty happy with my performance," Rybakina said.
"I've watched her matches, of course. When you don't know the opponent, at least me, I'm trying to focus on myself, and I know that serve is a big key in my game.
"So I was focusing on that. I needed a couple of games to get used to her shots. She is very talented."
Gadecki played in the last match on Rod Laver Arena but was no match for Russian Veronika Kudermetova, losing 6-1 6-1.
On the men's side, de Minaur dominated Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-1 7-5 6-4 but 2023 Australian Open doubles champion Hijikata spurned a golden chance at a second-round berth.
Hijikata fell 6-4 6-4 6-3 to qualifier Mitchell Krueger, ranked 74 spots below him.
The 31-year-old American will meet Frenchman Corentin Moutet, who took down injured local hope Alexei Popyrin in Tuesday evening's headline act on John Cain Arena, 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4.
