Madison Keys makes winning Australian Open return, but Oleksandra Oliynykova steals the show

Madison Keys may have made a winning start to her Australian Open title defense on Tuesday in Melbourne, but her beaten opponent, tattooed Ukrainian Oleksandra Oliynykova, made a lasting impression in more ways then one.

Listless to start her title defense, Keys hit 15 unforced errors in the first four games to trail 4-0 against a player who was making not just her Grand Slam main-draw debut but her WTA tour-level debut. While Keys reined it in from there, to the tune of five straight games, she later found her range again just in time to stave off becoming the second defending champion to lose her first match the next year in the Open Era. Down 6-4 in the tiebreaker, the No. 9 seed hammered four straight winners to steal the set on her way to a 7-6(6), 6-1 win.

"I had been thinking of that moment for basically a year," Keys confessed in her on-court interview. "Obviously, [I was] very nervous at the start.

"I was talking to Lindsay Davenport yesterday and she reminded me that not many people get to be a defending champion at a Grand Slam, so just try to embrace it and enjoy it. As nervous as I was at the start, I'm really glad to be back and that I got through that match."

But Keys' nerves weren't all she needed to overcome inside Rod Laver Arena. World No. 92 Oliynykova showed no signs of being over-awed by the occasion, and turned the early games into a chess match.

Recognizing Keys' inconsistencies and nerves, she kept the American guessing with a mix of paces and slices, and her defense-first playing style frustrated Keys into over-hitting. After the one hour and 40-minute match, Keys saluted Oliynykova's effort, as the Ukrainian milled about courtside for the duration of Keys' on-court interview, signing autographs and posing for selfies.

"First of all, my opponent today was incredible," Keys said. "She served so well and is such a great competitor, Definitely she made it tricky for me. Just being able to settle a little bit, find my way, trust myself and go after my shots. I think I was playing a little bit too timid at the beginning, so just being able to rely on knowing that I'm a good tennis player, and if I just let myself play, then good things will happen.

"It's definitely not the typical style that you see every day, which makes it a bit trickier. The changes of pace, the higher balls, the slice ... she's also super fast and got to a lot of balls, and made me work myself out on the other side of the net today, which I was able to do."

Keys finished the math with 26 winners to the Ukrainian's seven, and will bid to run her unbeaten streak in Melbourne to nine when she faces her compatriot Ashlyn Krueger next.