World no.1 Ash Barty advanced to the third round of the Australian Open on day four at Melbourne Park, defeating fellow Aussie Daria Gavrilova in a tight encounter on Rod Laver Arena.
Barty raced away to a 6-1, 5-2 lead and looked bound for the third round, before Daria Gavrilova made a major comeback, refusing to go down easily.
Gavrilova managed to break Barty's serve twice to force a second set tiebreaker, and had two set points of her own before the world number one prevailed 6-1, 7-6(7) in what ended up being a thrilling affair.
"I think doing all the right things up until that point, then I feel like I a little bit just lost my way tactically, more with just having the right intent and going about it the right way. Even if I did miss, I wanted to miss in the right way. I just kind of lost that a little bit through that second set. But happy in the end to be able to get through in straight and kind of stay alive," Barty said.
"I think it's natural. I mean, I haven't played a lot of tennis over the last 12 months. Obviously going to have ebbs and flows not only in your concentration but your level of play as well. It's important to be able to bring that back as often as possible. For a couple games, I wasn't able to do that. A much better game at 5-6, to be able to reset, kind of go from there, push it towards a tiebreak, which again was tight, but some of the misses was better misses in a way of trying to do the right thing."
Barty will take on 29th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the third round.
"I've never hit with her. That's a new one for me. I think that's the time for Tyz (Craig Tiley) and I to sit down and do our homework. Tyz is extremely diligent with all the work that he does. He's the best in the business. I'm very fortunate to have him in my corner. We'll kind of sit down and work from there, try and workout a game plan as best that we can. Then it's about I suppose the challenge of now having someone that I haven't played against that I can go out there and test myself against.
She's obviously playing some very good tennis, had a great week last week as well. Certainly has got her foot firmly set in the season, is going ahead well," Barty stated.
Also advancing to the third round was Alex de Minaur, who came from a break down, reeling off four games in a row to claim the third set, and the match 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 over Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas.
"Well, very happy. It's not an easy match to play. I felt like I went out there and I stuck to the game plan and was very focused throughout. A little misstep in the third set, but I managed to bounce back really quickly, so very happy with my overall performance and how I was mentally," de Minaur said.
"Look, all the work you put in is for this tournament. You have the preseason, and you want to just show off your best tennis in front of your home crowd. Your home slam is always that one tournament you mark in the calendar which you want to perform in."
de Minaur will take on 16th seed Fabio Fognini for a spot in the round of 16.
"It's a quality opponent. I mean, Fabio has been up there for a very long time. He's back to playing his best tennis. He showed it at ATP Cup. Look, it's going to be a very tough one, but I'm happy to be in the third round. I'm happy to be back competing in the Australian Open in front of my home crowd, and I'm just going to enjoy every second of it."
South Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis may have lost, but he stole all the deadlines on day four, going down in an absolute epic to fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(5), 4-6, 1-6, 7-6(5), 4-6 on Rod Laver Arena.
Kokkinakis, who has battled countless injuries since he broke onto the tour in 2014 is finally feeling fit and healthy again, and pushed Tsitsipas - a semifinalist at Melbourne Park to the brink of defeat, but ultimately couldn't finish the job.
"It was incredible. It's been a long time - I think the last match I played on there I was 17 against Nadal. That was my first Aussie Open and it's been a long time waiting. But, yeah, it's incredible," Kokkinakis said.
"I mean, matches like this are the reasons why - and I thing I mentioned it in my last press, these are the reasons why I believe I can still do it and why I have tried to come back so many times and keep giving myself a chance, because he's a hell of a player.
Obviously got a bright future, and he'stop 5, 6 in the game right now. But, yeah, reasons like that and matches like that are why I think if I can just keep getting in better shape physically and keep being able to play matches there is no reason I can't be where he is.
That's what I'm going for. I've got a long way to go, a lot of work to do, but I think today proved to me and a few other people that I have still got it in me. I'm going to try to use this as motivation and keep kicking forward," Kokkinakis said.
Unfortunately fellow Australians Alexei Popyrin, Christopher O'Connell and Sam Stosur all exited the tournament in the second round.
Popyrin went down to South African Lloyd Harris in a seesawing encounter on Show Court 3, 2-6, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(5), 3-6. The Aussie nearly pulled off another miraculous comeback victory, but looked physically drained towards the end of the match and wasn't able to overcome a quality opponent in Harris.
Following Popyrin's match on Show Court 3, Christopher O'Connell took on Moldovan Radu Albot, who knocked off 12th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the opening round.
O'Connell started slowly, managing just two games in the opening set, but the Aussie had his chances from that point onwards, unfortunately unable to capitalise and ultimately went down 2-6, 5-7, 6-7(8).
American Jessica Pegula, who defeated 12th seed and former champion Viktoria Azarenka in the first round, was red hot on Margret Court Arena, dispatching Stosur 6-0, 6-1 in just 50 minutes.
Nick Kyrgios is the only Australian in singles action on day five, taking on third seed Dominic Thiem in a blockbuster on John Cain Arena on Friday night.
Tune in as The First Serve reporter Jedd Zetzer joined Damian Watson to wrap up all the action from day four at Melbourne Park.