Australian Open: ‘Timid’ Madison Keys avoids Jennifer Capriati first-round fate
Defending champion Madison Keys threatened to become only the second woman and fourth player overall to fall in the first round of the Australian Open the year after winning the title in the Open Era.
Following her historic start to the 2025 season when she won 14 of her first 15 matches – including titles at the Adelaide International and a maiden Grand Slam at Melbourne – Keys has struggled so far this year.
The American was 3-2 heading into the hard-court major after a quarter-final exit in Brisbane and a round of 16 loss at Adelaide, and it looked like she was headed for a first-round Australian Open exit with world No 92 Oleksandra Oliynykova dominating early on.
The 25-year-old Oliynykova didn’t look like a player who was making her Grand Slam main draw debut as she broke her more esteemed opponent in the opening game and in game three to race into 4-0 lead.
But after a steady hold to get onto the scoreboard, Keys got back on serve with breaks in games six and eight, only for the Ukrainian to edge ahead again with a third break in game 11.
Coming out to serve for the match, Oliynykova never got going as the world No 9 showed her mettle to take the set to a tie-breaker, which she edged 8-6 after going down 0-4.
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The second set was a lot more comfortable for Keys as she turned the tables with back-to-back breaks to open a 4-0 lead before a third break to love wrapped up the 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 victory.
“My opponent today was incredible, she started so well and [is] such a great competitor and definitely made it tricky for me,” she said. “But I think just being able to settle a little bit and kind of find my way, then really just kind of trust myself and go after my shots.
“I think I was playing a little bit too timid in the beginning, so being able to just kind of rely on knowing that I’m a good tennis player and if I just let myself play, then good things usually happen.”
The Defending Champions To Lose In Round One
With the win, Keys avoided following in Jennifer Capriati’s footsteps by becoming only the second defending champion to lose in the first round at Melbourne Park.
After winning back-to-back titles in 2002 and 2003 with wins over Martina Hingis in both matches, the American was stunned by Marlene Weingaertner in the round of 128 with the German winning 2–6, 7–6, 6–4.
The other two defending champions to lose their openers are Roscoe Tanner and Boris Becker.
Tanner was the first-ever defending champion to go down in the first round when he was beaten by New Zealand’s Chris Lewis in December 1977, not even a year after he won the Australian Open as the tournament was also held in January 1977.
Twenty years later, Boris Becker became the second player to go down in the opening round after winning the title, but was beaten by one Carlos Moya, who was still at the start of his career as he was 20-years-old and hadn’t really made a name for himself just yet.
