Kimberly Birrell finds a second US Open route through a resilient doubles comeback

Kimberly Birrell has kept her US Open week alive in doubles, recovering alongside Peyton Stearns from a slow start to defeat Ena Shibahara and Lanlana Tararudee in three sets.

A second draw, and a different test Kimberly Birrell’s US Open week now has a second chapter. One day after her singles campaign moved into unfamiliar territory, the Australian returned to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center with American partner Peyton Stearns and overturned a first-set deficit to reach the women’s doubles second round.

Birrell and Stearns defeated Japan’s Ena Shibahara and Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday, September 3. The result gives Birrell another active draw at Flushing Meadows and, more importantly, a competitive platform in which her response to pressure mattered as much as her shot-making. (usopen.org)

The opening set was not a gentle introduction. Shibahara is an established doubles presence, while Tararudee brought the volatility of a younger singles-focused player into the pairing. Birrell and Stearns were unable to turn their early opportunities into scoreboard control, dropping the set 6-3. Their recovery was emphatic rather than incremental: they levelled with a 6-2 second set before edging the deciding set 6-3.

The value of solving the match The most useful reading of the result is not that Birrell has suddenly become a doubles specialist. It is that she and Stearns found a way to change the match after the first set had exposed the weaknesses in their opening pattern.

The available match statistics point to a contest in which neither team enjoyed straightforward service dominance. Birrell and Stearns won only 62 per cent of their service games and saved three of eight break points, while Shibahara and Tararudee held 77 per cent of their service games. Yet the Australian-American combination proved more effective on second-serve exchanges, winning 58 per cent of those return points compared with 32 per cent for their opponents. (tennis.com)

That distinction helps explain how a team can lose the first set and still take control. Once the match moved away from first-strike serving, Birrell and Stearns were able to make more of the neutral-ball exchanges and apply pressure to the second delivery. The turnaround was therefore less about a sudden serving surge than about improving the quality of the points they chose to contest.

A useful continuation for Birrell For Birrell, the doubles result is valuable because it extends her time in New York without requiring the story to be framed around the singles breakthrough already covered. A Grand Slam doubles draw offers a different tactical environment: shorter windows to attack, more emphasis on positioning and communication, and little tolerance for a passive return game.

The partnership with Stearns also carries some built-in familiarity. The two have already met on the singles circuit this season, including at the ATX Open in Austin in February, where Stearns advanced to the final after defeating Birrell in the semi-final. That history does not establish a long-term doubles partnership, but it does mean the pair are not approaching each other as complete unknowns. (wtatennis.com)

The evidence from their opener is modest but concrete. They did not cruise through the match, and the statistics do not suggest a one-sided contest. They recovered because their level improved after the opening set and because they were able to win enough of the second-serve battle to compensate for an uneven service performance.

The next question is repeatability Birrell now has the chance to make the doubles campaign more than an extra line on her US Open record. The tournament schedule lists women’s doubles second-round matches for Saturday, September 5 and Sunday, September 6, meaning the partnership has another opportunity to test whether Thursday’s adjustment was a one-off recovery or the beginning of a more stable pattern. (usopen.org)

That is the appropriate scale of the development. Birrell has reached the second round, not yet made a deep run. But after starting behind against Shibahara and Tararudee, she and Stearns showed the capacity to diagnose a problem and compete their way out of it. In a week already shaped by firsts for Birrell, that resilience gives her doubles campaign a distinct reason to keep watching.

Sources Dabrowski/Stefani, Routliffe/Sutjiadi among women's doubles winners on Day 5 of 2026 US Open | Official Site of the 2026 US Open Tennis Championships - A USTA Event Birrell / Stearns vs Shibahara / Tararudee · Round 1 · US Open | Tennis.com Stearns vs. Birrell | Semifinals ATX Open 2026 | WTA Official US Open 2026 Schedule | Official Site of the 2026 US Open Tennis Championships - A USTA Event Dabrowski/Stefani, Routliffe/Sutjiadi among women’s doubles winners on Day 5 of 2026 US Open Birrell / Stearns vs Shibahara / Tararudee — US Open Round 1 US Open 2026 schedule ATX Open 2026 — WTA official match page