Four-time champion Roger Federer has turned in a polished display to comfortably see off Ivo Karlovic and join world No.2 Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
And Czech No.7 seed Tomas Berdych, Nadal's seeded compatriots Nicolas Almagro and Feliciano Lopez and German Philipp Kohlschreiber are the other players who have advanced to the final 16 so far on Friday.
Federer, whose most recent triumph at Melbourne Park came two years ago, was pushed to the limit early by the big-serving Croatian, who famously derailed Lleyton Hewitt's Wimbledon defence at the first hurdle in 2003.
But having saved a set point at 5-6 in the opening-set tie-breaker at Rod Laver Arena and then claimed the only break of the second set to take that as well, Federer steamrolled Karlovic in the third as he rolled to a 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 6-3 win.
Critical to the opening set was when Karlovic missed his first serve at 6-5 in the tie-breaker and then seemed to have the point won with a drop volley, only for a charging Federer to surprise him with a lob and then hit a brilliant backhand winner to turn the momentum and take the set.
Next up for the Swiss maestro will be either local hope Bernard Tomic or 13th-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, who go head-to-head on centre court on Friday night.
Meanwhile 2009 champion Nadal, who had a scare when he hurt his knee in his hotel room on tournament eve, had an even easier time of it as he cast Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko aside 6-2 6-4 6-2.
After dropping his opening service game, Nadal showed good touch thereafter as he landed 81 percent of his first serves and then won 85 percent of them.
Having broken Lacko in the first game of the match, Nadal established his supremacy by repeating the effort twice more on the way to closing out the set and then added three more in the next two sets, as Lacko's 30 unforced errors also took their toll.
Next up for the 10-time Grand Slam winner will be 18th seed Lopez, who outlasted marathon man John Isner, 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 6-7 (0-7) 6-1 in just under three-and-a-half hours at Hisense Arena.
After winning an epic battle with Argentine David Nalbandian in five sets on Wednesday, most expected Lopez to prove too strong for Isner and so it proved, but not before the American No.16 seed forced him to a fifth set.
Berdych had to fight hard for two sets before finally getting on top of 30th-seeded South African Kevin Anderson, winning 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-1) 6-1 to book himself a clash with Almagro, who got the better of Swiss 21st seed Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 6-4.
And Kohlschreiber eased past American No.8 seed Mardy Fish's Colombian conqueror Alejandro Falla 6-3 6-2 7-6 (7-3), with his next match to come against either Argentine No.11 seed Juan Martin del Potro or Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu, who play at Hisense Arena on Friday night.