Australian Matthew Ebden has self-imploded on Margaret Court Arena on Thursday after squandering a two-set lead to No.24 seed Kei Nishikori to be beaten in five and bow out of the Australian Open in spectacular fashion.
The result continued a bad start to the day for the locals after James Duckworth earlier went down fighting in his Grand Slam debut campaign in four sets by men's No.9 seed Janko Tipsarevic in the second round.
Ebden looked set to progress to the third round after conceding only four games in the opening two sets.
But after losing the third set, Ebden won just two more games in the final two sets to lose 3-6 1-6 6-4 6-1 6-1.
Nishikori will now face No.12 seed Gilles Simon or Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the round of 32.
Wildcard Ebden, competing in his first Grand Slam event, could hardly put a foot wrong in the first two sets as he made just nine unforced errors compared to Nishikori's 27.
The 24-year-old broke Nishikori twice in the first set and three breaks in the second from the Australian, who was putting in a strong serving game, placed him in a commanding position.
But the Japanese world No.26 wasn't done with and immediately broke Ebden in the first game of the third set.
Ebden broke back three games later but with the set score tied at 4-4, Nishikori crucially broke again before forcing the match into a fourth set and breathing new life into the match.
What happened next could hardly have been expected, though, as Ebden proceeded to capitulate.
The unforced error count in the final two sets was weighed heavily in Ebden's favour (29-14) and he could only manage 34 points while Nishikori helped himself to 57 on the way to a remarkable win.
Duckworth, who turns 20 on Saturday, put up an excellent fight in just his fifth Tour match, taking the first set before succumbing to the experienced Serb 3-6 6-2 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in a match which lasted three hours and 11 minutes.
Tipsarevic, playing in his seventh Australian Open campaign, was forced to call on some of his best tennis, with 42 winners to just 31 unforced errors as he booked just his second third round appearance at the Australian Open.
A clash with No.17 seed Richard Gasquet looks a little more straight forward than Tipsarevic's last third round appearance here when he was beaten in a five-set epic by Roger Federer in 2008.
Duckworth burst out of the blocks with breaks in the second and sixth games to immediately have his much higher-credentialed opponent under pressure.
He closed out the first set in 34 minutes, but the match was quickly back on level terms when Tipsarevic broke in the fourth and eighth game of the second set.
Duckworth was again broken in the eighth game of the third set, but fought back straight away and pushed it to a tie-breaker which would prove crucial to the momentum of the match.
The Australian got a mini-break to lead 3-2 but let his advantage slip when he double faulted at 5-5 and Tipsarevic closed out the set.
The world No.250 didn't get a look in from that point, with Tipsarevic failing to give up even a break point in the fourth set, while breaking his opponent in the fifth game to set up the win.
While Duckworth would have been disappointed to give up his chance at a third round Grand Slam match, he can feel he has made giant strides in the past month having secured his first two wins at Tour level.