Lleyton Hewitt recovered from a sluggish start to show why he could be a Wimbledon contender this year.
The 29-year-old Australian was champion in 2002 and has also won four titles on the Queen's Club lawn during his career.
As recently as the start of this month he beat Roger Federer on grass in the final of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.
World No.159 Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina was therefore not expected to pose Hewitt any serious trouble, but he captured the first set to briefly threaten an upset.
However, Hewitt, backed by an army of Australian fans, as is customary at Wimbledon, picked up his form and powered through the next three sets to win 5-7 6-0 6-2 6-2.
Seeded 15th this year, having been bumped up from his world ranking which currently stands at 26, Hewitt will face Evgeny Korolev of Kazakhstan next after his four-set victory against Argentinean Eduardo Schwank.
On a positive day for Australia at SW19, Peter Luczak, Alicia Molik and Jarmila Groth also advanced to the second round.
But qualifiers Bernard Tomic and Carsten Ball weren't so lucky in crashing out in the first round.
Luczak, in his first main draw appearance at Wimbledon, upset No.30 seed Tommy Robredo 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 7-5.
Former world No.8 Molik's experience told in a 6-2 7-5 victory over Slovakian Zuzana Kucova, while Groth - who reached the last 16 at the French Open - was in good touch in a 6-4 6-3 defeat of Czech Renata Voracova.
Ball went down 6-2 6-0 3-6 7-6 (7-5) to Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis, while Tomic lost 6-3 7-6 (10-8) 6-2 to in-form American Mardy Fish, who reached the final at Queen's Club last week.
Sixth seed Samantha Stosur, Casey Dellacqua and Anastasia Rodionova are all in action on Tuesday.