The Bernard Tomic bandwagon picked up a host of new passengers on Monday at the Australian Open as the rising local star rallied from two sets down to upset Spanish 22nd seed Fernando Verdasco.
Fresh from winning the AAMI Classic at Kooyong on Saturday, Tomic came into the tournament under immense pressure from the host nation to perform at Melbourne Park and early on it appeared he was set to be overawed by the occasion.
But the 19-year-old showed remarkable composure to fight back, particularly after he'd squandered three set points at 0-40 on Verdasco's serve in the 12th game of the second set, to carve out an impressive 4-6 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 6-2 7-5 win in a match that went for a little over four hours.
Tomic's reward for his victory is a second-round meeting with American Sam Querrey, who advanced in much more comfortable fashion 6-3 6-2 6-2 over Frenchman Kenny de Schepper.
Earlier, Casey Dellacqua was the first local through to the second round after crushing Serbian Bojana Jovanovski.
Dellacqua, who thrilled the fans at her home Grand Slam when she reached the fourth round in 2008, needed just 76 minutes to brush aside Jovanovski 6-3 6-2 on Margaret Court Arena.
The victory for Dellacqua, who is competing at the tournament courtesy of a wildcard, sets up a second-round meeting against No.3 seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus after she thrashed Briton Heather Watson 6-1 6-0.
Tomic and Verdasco had three break points each in the opening set but it the 2009 Australian Open semi-finalist who capitalised in the ninth game to take the lead.
In the second set both put their noses in front with breaks only to give them straight back, Tomic going ahead in the second game before Verdasco hit back before the Spaniard also broke in the fifth game but then gave it back in the sixth.
Tomic's failure to cash in on three break points in the 12th game proved costly as Verdasco eventually held and then raced away with the tie-breaker but stung rather than demoralised by that development, Tomic began hauling himself back.
A single break in the ninth game of the third set was all Tomic needed to take it and while he failed to hold the advantage following an early break in the fourth set, he broke twice more to force a decisive fifth set.
And while Verdasco clung on throughout the set as his opponent pressured him at every turn on serve, he finally cracked in the 11th game, leaving Tomic to claim victory with a forehand winner down the line.
Dellacqua and Jovanovski traded breaks of serve in the opening four games of the match before each held for the first time for 3-3 but from there it was the 26-year-old from Perth who broke again in the seventh and ninth games to take the first set.
After surviving four break points against her serve in the first game of the second set Dellacqua was broken in the third game but that only sparked her as she reeled off three breaks and five games in succession to cruise to victory.
Five other Australians are also in action, with Anastasia Rodionova scheduled to meet women's world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark on centre court on Monday night and Greg Jones and Ben Mitchell also facing seeds.
Jones will do battle with Ukrainian 13th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov at Margaret Court Arena while Mitchell faces off against American No.16 seed John Isner at Show Court 3.
And Ashleigh Barty will clash with Georgian Anna Tatishvili at Show Court 2 while Olivia Rogowska takes on Swede Sofia Arvidsson at Court 6.