AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 24, 2026

Kimberly Birrell

Talia Gibson

Press Conference

BIRRELL-GIBSON/Errani-Paolini

3-6, 6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference with Kim Birrell and Talia Gibson. Congratulations. You're through to the third round. How do you both feel after that?

KIMBERLY BIRRELL: Feeling pretty good. Really excited and super happy. Yeah, it's always amazing when you get to play more matches here in Melbourne and very cool to be -- does that mean we're in the second week -- yeah, in the second week of a Grand Slam, especially at home. It's awesome.

TALIA GIBSON: Yeah, it's so cool. For me, it's my first time getting to the second week of a slam.

KIMBERLY BIRRELL: Oh, yeah.

TALIA GIBSON: And a home slam as well. Yeah, this is extremely exciting and, yeah, it was so much fun out there today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. After a four- or five-hour delay today, how difficult was it to come back and refocus on the task at hand, especially given the fact that you also faced match points as well against a very tricky, crafty Italian pair?

KIMBERLY BIRRELL: Yeah. I think it was not too bad, to be honest. We were pretty lucky that it was -- we knew exactly how long we were going to get to begin with, so we were able to shut it down and grab some food and then have a good chat with our coaches and come up with a really good plan.

I think we were really clear on what we needed to do, what was working well to get us back into the third set, yeah, because we were down 4-1, and then obviously we were on a bit of a roll, so it's kind of a catch-22. Yeah, we did maybe lose a little bit of momentum, but yeah, always good to refresh our game plan with our coaches, and then I think we did a good job when we came back out.

TALIA GIBSON: Yeah. I mean, we kind of known what would have happened if we had have kept playing at that point. I think, yeah, it's just one of those times where you have to accept the situation and just try and deal with it as well as you possibly can.

I mean, at that point I think we were already extremely impressed with ourselves at how well we had done in the match already. Going back out there, we had nothing to lose, so we were just going to go after it. Yeah, we got through the match, which is really awesome.

Q. Did you take any inspiration from James McCabe and Li Tu, who knocked out the top seeds yesterday, given the fact that you were playing Sara Errani, who's won multiple Grand Slams, two-time AO winner? Was there any inspiration from the men the day before?

TALIA GIBSON: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, first of all, the fact that a couple of Aussies beat the No. 1 seed is amazing and so unreal. I think it was on the same court as well.

KIMBERLY BIRRELL: Was it? I didn't even know. I watched a few games of that match. It was awesome.

TALIA GIBSON: It's just another reminder, anything can happen. You just have to go out there and just not play sort of the two people in the other side, if that makes sense, and yeah, I think we just did well to focus on ourselves and just stay positive and enjoyed being out there.

Q. Talia, you are off the court for three or four hours hanging out, working out the plan for how you get back. What was the chat like? You know, you say you were pretty happy with how you were playing. Can you just share some anecdotes for that strange couple of hours?

TALIA GIBSON: I think sort of immediately off court we did a quick debrief of what was happening in the match, what we were doing really well, what was working for us, but also other things that we might need to change going back out on court.

Then that was it. We didn't think about the match pretty much for the next couple of hours until we knew we had a time and when we needed to get ready to go, start warming up again. It was a quick chat again to just remind ourselves of what we needed to do, like, getting back out there, and I think we executed the plan really well.

Q. Kim, obviously great after that painful singles experience. Yeah, just take us through you getting past that match and starting to enjoy yourself on the doubles court.

KIMBERLY BIRRELL: Yeah. I mean, yeah, it was a tricky situation playing a good friend, but like Talia just said, I was concentrating on my end of the court.

After the match, I was really happy for her and also to see her success. What's happening tonight, I'm really excited for her.

I think no matter who you play, it's always tough to lose, especially in a Grand Slam. So I was sort of giving myself a little bit of time to be upset and feel all the emotions, but it doesn't take too long for me to be able to bounce back.

Getting back out on the practice court the next day is always good and having another thing to focus on, like doubles and mixed. I was really excited to be playing with Talia.

So, yeah, I think we're all used to that. We play every week. We lose almost every week.

TALIA GIBSON: We know the feeling.

KIMBERLY BIRRELL: We pick ourselves back up, and we just keep going. I'm really, really excited that we were able to make some new memories this week for 2026 AO.

Q. You would have seen the news just recently about Maddy getting into the fourth round. What do you make of that? I don't know, it could have almost been you.

KIMBERLY BIRRELL: Oh, I don't think that way, no. She absolutely deserves to be in the fourth round, and she put herself in the situation.

Yeah, like Talia said, again, anything can happen in tennis, in sport. It's really inspirational. You've just got to keep working hard and keep showing up, and, yeah, you literally never know what can happen. It's really cool.