With a unique look, an unconventional game style and a steely determination to make her absent father proud, Oleksandra Oliynykova delivered the most eye-catching of grand slam debuts at the Australian Open.
Drawn on Rod Laver Arena against Madison Keys, the 25-year-old Ukrainian acquitted herself admirably on Tuesday, racing to a 4-0 lead before the defending champion found her groove.
Keys reeled off four straight winners to close out the opening-set tiebreak and went on to salute 7-6 (8-6) 6-1, but it was Oliynykova who hade the bigger impact on the crowd at Rod Laver Arena and those watching on from afar.
Sporting a large array of permanent tattoos - along with some temporary ones of blue flowers on her face - she was hard to miss.
Oliynykova then attended her post-match press conference wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan "I need your help to protect Ukrainian women and children but I can't talk about it here."
The articulate Ukrainian then had plenty to say - about tennis and much more important matters.
Her father is serving in the Ukrainian army in the ongoing war against Russia.
"He is my biggest supporter and has been since childhood," said Oliynykova.
"I'm so proud of him and that's something that's keeping me motivated even more.
"After he joined the military, I have improved my ranking over 200 places.
"I know it was his dream to see me on this court and I would do everything to make him proud.
He told me it was an amazing match - he just texted me and I made his dream come true.
"What could be a bigger motivation?"
Keys admitted it took her quite some time to adapt to Oliynykova's moonball-style ground strokes, something the American hadn't encountered since her days in the under-12s.
"And that's obviously no disrespect to her at all, but it's just been a really long time to play someone who plays that style, but she does it so effectively," said Keys.
"Obviously I wasn't able to watch her a ton beforehand; there wasn't a lot that I could actually find online and it was kind of deceiving.
"(Her ground strokes) are so high and so deep.
"I felt like I couldn't really take a swing volley or take it off of the bounce ... but I was genuinely impressed with how well she's able to hit that ball."
