One of the last times so many Australians advanced to this stage of the Australian Open, Daria Gavrilova was a nine-year-old in Russia with no idea of where the future would take her. That, on Thursday, for the adopted Victorian, will be Hisense Arena, as one of the last three of eight local players to have reached the second round.
Back in 2004, in the days of Lleyton Hewitt, Mark Philippoussis, Alicia Molik, Nicole Pratt and a young Sam Stosur, that number was nine; in 2015, there were 11, but such sizeable representations for the host nation have been rare in recent times. Gavrilova, improving Jordan Thompson (against eighth seed Dominic Thiem) and Melbourne wildcard Andrew Whittington (versus Croatian ultra-marathon man Ivo Karlovic) complete the cast of third round hopefuls, the youthful flavour a cause for optimism in the longer term.
Hewitt is the current Davis Cup captain; Molik his Fed Cup equivalent. At the Hopman Cup, she watched Gavrilova's slightly shaky start to the follow-up to her breakthrough season; more encouraging was the first-time-Open seed's three-set performance against Naomi Broady on Margaret Court Arena on Tuesday, and the composure shown by a player who can sometimes be rather too demonstrably up-and-down.
"Competitively she was much better, Dasha, she didn't have any let-downs during the match, and emotionally as well," said Molik, ahead of the 22nd seed's clash with Croatian teenager Ana Konjuh. "I thought she was pretty level, but had the excitement there, which is of course a good thing. She was getting a little bit down on herself in Perth, a little bit frustrated. She's certainly lifted. She's said herself that she likes the big stage, so she likes to rise to the occasion."
Gavrilova needs to do so at her home grand slam, given that not only is the public far better informed about the bouncy, likeable 22-year-old who announced herself by reaching the last 16 here a year ago, but she is a known quantity for opponents, too.
"They're a lot more familiar with what she brings to the court, the way she plays, her tendencies, so there is a lot of extra pressure," Molik said. "The eyes are on Dasha now, and they were last year, but I think coming into this year Sam was a little under the radar and it was Dasha who everyone was really expecting a lot from. If anyone can handle it I think she can, but she will have a learnt a valuable lesson last year in her last match, the (Carla) Suarez Navarro match. No question."
Ah, yes, that one. A public unravelling against the Spanish 10th seed, for which Gavrilova later apologised and was given a dressing down by Pratt, the no-nonsense Queenslander who was then her coach and is now Tennis Australia's head of women's tennis, working closely with Gavrilova's new mentor, Serbian Biljana Veselinovic.
"I think she's progressed in leaps and bounds compared to that match," Pratt said. "I just think that match was an accumulation of the whole week, and how tired she was, and it was really the whole AO period build-up and then the moment of 'hey, if I win this match I'm in the quarter-finals of a grand slam', so I think it was one of those perfect storms, so to speak.
"Obviously if she does get to that stage again, we would have a conversation, but that would be a good problem to have - if we're having that conversation prior to going on for a fourth round match."
Gavrilova first needs to win two more: against Konjuh, the world No.36, and then potentially 12th seed Timea Bacsinszky. Pratt is confident a succession of lead-up matches against big-hitters will have Gavrilova prepared for Konjuh's heavy groundstrokes, the Victorian having been satisfied with her composure after dropping the first set against Broady before winning 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
"This is the first step. I was telling myself during the match, 'Ok, you're doing well. Surely it's going to pay off'. Yeah, after the match, I was joking around. I said, 'I'm a grown-up woman now'," she smiled.
"I didn't feel the pressure. I just played. I'm someone who's always going to have tough matches because I can't just blow someone off the court. I don't have a big serve, like, huge forehand or backhand. I think all my matches are going to be tough.... I don't have the biggest game on tour, so I always have to hustle. Sometimes it takes a bit long."
Which could be a metaphor for Australian women's tennis, which Pratt describes as being in a rebuilding phase after something of a void amid the transition from long-time mainstays such as Stosur, Casey Dellacqua and the just-retired Jarmila Wolfe to the likes of comeback Queenslander Ash Barty, junior Destanee Aiava et al. "I think we're sort of looking to this next generation to step up, and Dasha's been a great leader for them."
Gavrilova, meanwhile, took inspiration from the first-round efforts of her compatriots, with Thompson, for example, having recovered from a two-set deficit against Joao Souza. "I was actually telling myself, 'Ok, people have come back from being down, men, from being down two sets. I was like, 'You're only down one set, so you can do it'. It's awesome that so many Aussies are through to the second round."