In what is the first Australian Open without Lleyton Hewitt for two decades, two Australian 17-year-old wildcards announced themselves as future stars on the opening day of the grand slam.
They have a combined ranking of 715, but Alex De Minaur and Jaimee Fourlis have captured the headlines at Melbourne Park on day one with eye-catching wins.
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Aussie teen De Minaur through to second round
Bernard Tomic defeated Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in the first round of the Australian Open to set up a clash with Victor Estrella Burgos, while Aussie 17-year-old Alex De Minaur surprised with a first round win.
De Minaur, last year's Junior Wimbledon finalist who was born in Sydney but spent half of his life living in Spain, put up the fight of his fledgling career to claw back from two sets to one down to book a place in the second round in a five-set thriller.
In the women's draw, Fourlis was far too strong for 26-year-old American Anna Tatishvili, claiming a straight-sets win just a fortnight after her WTA debut.
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De Minaur, who is being mentored by Hewitt, was racing the clock to take the court for his maiden grand slam after picking up an abdominal strain that forced him to withdraw from the Sydney International last week.
But he showed little discomfort in a near four-hour marathon against Austrian Gerald Melzer, displaying the same dogged characteristics as his mentor to save a match point in the fourth set and go on to claim a 5-7, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 victory.
The win caps off an incredible month for De Minaur, who received a wildcard entry into this year's Australian Open after playing in his first ATP event in Brisbane.
De Minaur, the son of a Uruguayan father and Spanish mother, spent the first five years of his life in Sydney before the family moved to Alicante, Spain.
He returned to Australia eight years later, only to recently return to Spain with his family when his parents' restaurant closed down.
His parents remain in Spain but his sister, who lives in Sydney, was in Melbourne Park to watch her brother's breakthrough performance.
De Minaur didn't attend school in Sydney but was instead provided distance education by Tennis NSW at their Olympic Park headquarters.
The teenager began to cramp in the fifth set but managed to hold his composure to race through the deciding set and seal a memorable win.
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