American tennis player Madison Keys, the defending champion at the Australian Open, advanced to the second round in Melbourne today after defeating Ukrainian Oleksandra Oliynikova 7:6, 6:1.
The ninth seed, playing in her 50th Grand Slam tournament, had major problems in the first set. She was down 4-0, but managed to turn the score around and win that part of the game in a tiebreak.
Oliynikova, who is making her first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, led 4:0 in the tie-break, but failed to capitalize on two set points, so Keys won that part of the game 8:6.
"Obviously I was very nervous at the beginning. I'm really happy to be back and to have gotten through this match," Keys said.
Keys will play in the second round of the Australian Open against compatriot Ashlyn Krieger, who defeated Czech Sara Bejlek 6:3, 6:3 today.
Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina defeated Slovenia's Kaja Juvan 6-4, 6-3 after an hour and 13 minutes of play. The world number five's next opponent will be France's Varvara Gracheva, who defeated Swiss Viktorija Golubić 6-1, 2-6, 6-1.
Czech Karolina Pliskova defeated former US Open champion Sloane Stephens 7:6, 6:2 and her next opponent will be Indonesian Janice Chen, who was better than Canadian Leila Fernandez 6:2, 7:6 at the start of the tournament.
Another Czech, Katerina Sinjakova, advanced further, winning against Hungarian Pana Udvardy with a confident 6:1, 6:2, and in the next round she will face American Amanda Anisimova.
Czechs Linda Fruvirtova and Tereza Valentova, Russian Anna Kalinskaya, Australian Tyla Preston and Austrian Julia Graber also cleared the first hurdle at the Australian Open today.
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