Veteran Lleyton Hewitt is through to the third round of the 2012 Australian Open after opponent Andy Roddick retired hurt following the third set of their encounter on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday night.
Hewitt led the match 3-6 6-3 6-4 before No.15 seed Roddick decided to prematurely call an end to the contest due to a hamstring injury.
The result ended the local contingent's rotten run at the tournament on the fourth day after Jelena Dokic, James Duckworth and Matthew Ebden were all eliminated.
Crucially for Hewitt, whose ageing body has undergone its fair share of surgery in recent times, it means he gets to spend additional precious time off the court before he faces off with Canadian young gun Milos Raonic in the round of 32.
The 2002 Wimbledon champ put in a dominant performance up until Roddick's retirement, winning 82 percent of points on his first serve compared to 68 and outdoing the American in winners (41-28).
Hewitt even had the temerity to better Roddick in his pet category, aces, 11-9.
Roddick got the jump on Hewitt when he broke the Australian's serve in the sixth game of the match to gain a 4-2 advantage before taking the first set three games later.
But the world No.16 surrendered his serve in the second game of the second set and failed to recover as Hewitt went on to level proceedings.
The third set began with a break of serve each by Hewitt and Roddick respectively but with the score locked at 2-2, Hewitt managed another break and didn't look back to go a set up.
Dokic had no such luck as she was comprehensively picked apart by No.9 seed Marion Bartoli in their second-round women's clash on Rod Laver Arena.
Dokic was no match for Bartoli as she was swept aside in 72 minutes 6-3 6-2.
The result meant the world No.4 has now failed to get past the second round of the Australian Open since her dream run to the quarter-finals in 2009.
Dokic almost doubled Bartoli's unforced error tally (28-15) and unsurprisingly the Frenchwoman also comfortably won the point count (61-42).
Bartoli will face China's Jie Zheng in the third round.
And the news wasn't much better for Ebden who self-imploded on Margaret Court Arena 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.
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 in three hours.
Nishikori will now face either 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.
But after losing the third set to the revitalised Japanese world No.26, few would have envisaged what happened next as Ebden proceeded to capitulate, committing 29 unforced errors to Nishikori's 14 and the Australian could only manage 34 points in the final two sets while his opponent helped himself to 57 on the way to his remarkable win.
Earlier, Duckworth went down fighting in his Grand Slam debut campaign in four