{"id":20515,"date":"2025-01-14T04:51:36","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T20:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=20515"},"modified":"2025-01-17T04:54:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T20:54:19","slug":"ao-2025-rising-aussie-talia-gibson-scores-memorable-maiden-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2025\/01\/14\/ao-2025-rising-aussie-talia-gibson-scores-memorable-maiden-victory","title":{"rendered":"AO 2025: Rising Aussie Talia Gibson scores memorable maiden victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-year-old Talia Gibson secures her first Grand Slam main-draw victory in an epic comeback at Melbourne Park.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talia Gibson\u2019s maiden victory against a top-100 opponent could not have come at a better time.<\/p>\n

The young West Australian came from a set down to prevail against world No.94 Zeynep Sonmez 3-6 7-6(5) 6-1 at Melbourne Park on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Gibson, the first Aussie through to the second round at AO 2025, was soon joined by countrywoman Ajla Tomljanovic, and later, Australian men James Duckworth, James McCabe, Tristan Schoolkate, Jordan Thompson, Aleksandar Vukic and Thanasi Kokkinakis.<\/p>\n

Later in Monday, Australian duo Maya Joint and Nick Kyrgios fell to Jessica Pegula and Jacob Fearnley, respectively, in back-to-back matches at John Cain Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper exciting to get my first win here in the main draw,\u201d Gibson said about the come-from-behind victory. \u201cSuper grateful to Tennis Australia [for the opportunity to play main draw] and very happy with what I was able to bring to the court today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Aussie has improved her game immensely since her last bid at Grand Slam success two years ago.\u00a0The 20-year-old finished 2024 on a high, winning three Pro Tour titles in the space of a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I have certainly made a lot of huge developments in lots of different parts of my game,\u201d she said about her improvement since losing in the first round at Australian Open 2023. \u201cI think the last couple of months definitely got a lot of confidence from how I was doing in some tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

With both players vying for their first Grand Slam victory, Sonmez first assumed authority. The Turkish youngster hit 17 winners to Gibson\u2019s seven in the opening set to draw first blood.<\/p>\n

Pressure from the world No.150 would be Sonmez\u2019s eventual downfall in the second set. A double fault from the world No.94 when set point down saw Gibson level proceedings at one set all.<\/p>\n

Gibson took full control in the final set, racing to an early double-break lead. She needed just seven games to close out the match, booking her date with Paula Badosa on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just keep believing in myself and believing in my tennis ability and what I can bring to the court,\u201d the youngster said about her mindset after losing the opening set.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely wasn\u2019t my best tennis for part of the match today but I just kept committing to my game, just taking it point-by-point and competing as hard as I could. I think that got me through the match today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty-year-old Talia Gibson secures her first Grand Slam main-draw victory in an epic comeback at Melbourne Park. Talia Gibson\u2019s maiden victory against a top-100 opponent could not have come at a better time. The young West Australian came from a set down to prevail against world No.94 Zeynep Sonmez 3-6 7-6(5) 6-1 at Melbourne Park […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6414,"featured_media":20516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}