Short shift for Sinner, Keys through as Osaka makes bold Melbourne statement

MELBOURNE, Jan 20 : Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys made winning starts to their Australian Open title defences on Tuesday but former champion Naomi Osaka made the biggest splash on day three of the tournament with a dazzling entrance before her match.

Sinner, who is aiming for a third straight title at Melbourne Park, spent only 68 minutes on court in his first outing of the 2026 season before Hugo Gaston retired because of injury while losing 6-2 6-1.

The world number two consoled the weeping Frenchman and wished him well in his recovery before declaring himself delighted with the results of his off-season training.

"I was very happy," said the Italian. "We put in a lot of work to be back on court and it felt great. Obviously not the way you want to win the match, but from my side I'm very happy to be back on court."

Sinner showed some signs of rust at the start and was forced to save three break points in his opening service game before finding his imperious touch.

American Keys made an even shakier start to her maiden Grand Slam title defence before rallying for a 7-6(6) 6-1 victory over Ukrainian Oleksandra Oliynykova.

A double break down thanks to some untimely double faults, Keys trailed 4-0 before forcing a tiebreak in which the unorthodox Oliynykova caused chaos with her deep, looping shots.

Oliynykova brought up two set points but Keys erased the deficit with some trademark big-hitting to eventually snatch a tense tiebreak before racing through the second stanza.

"I think at the start I just felt like I was playing just a little timid and not really trusting my first instinct," said the ninth seed.

"I felt like I kind of kept changing my mind on what I actually wanted to do. I felt like I was reacting instead of