Australian wildcard Kimberly Birrell has secured one of the biggest victories of her tennis career, ousting No.29 seed Donna Vekic in the second round of the Australian Open.

Birrell, 20, won 6-4 4-6 6-1 against the Croatian on Wednesday to set up a third-round clash with either German second seed Angelique Kerber or Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia.

It continued a brilliant start to 2019 for the Queenslander, who claimed the first top-10 scalp of her career when she beat Russian Daria Kasatkina at the Brisbane International.