John Millman remains on course for a dream grand slam return bout with Roger Federer after downing Frenchman Ugo Humbert in the opening round of the Australian Open.
In a stellar day for the local contingent, six men moved through to the second round on Tuesday, led by Nick Kyrgios, who eased to a straight sets win over Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
Ajla Tomljanovic and Arina Rodionova flew the flag for the women to join Ashleigh Barty in round two.
Millman won 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 1-6 7-5, with Humbert losing his nerve in the final game, serving two consecutive double faults to close out the match.
The Queenslander was joined in the second round by his Davis Cup teammate Jordan Thompson and wildcard Marc Polmans, both of whom beat opponents from Kazakhstan.
Another wildcard, Alex Bolt, upset Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas in five sets while exciting 20-year-old Alexei Popyrin advanced when French veteran Jo-Wilfred Tsonga withdrew with a back problem while trailing the Australian 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-1.
Thompson outclassed Alexander Bublik 6-4 6-3 6-2, while Polmans had to work much harder before edging past Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4 6-3 4-6 6-7 (8-10) 6-4 in a marathon encounter, lasting four hours and 17 minutes.
It was a gutsy display from the 22-year-old Polmans, who had to regroup following the disappointment of blowing three match points in the fourth-set tiebreak.
Millman’s second-round opponent will be Poland’s No.31 seed Hubert Hurkacz and were he to win that encounter, his likely third-round opponent would be Federer.
Millman famously ousted the 20-time major champion in the the round of 16 at the 2018 US Open.
“It would be nice to have another encounter with Roger, but I’m under no illusion, this next match is going to be an absolute tough one,” said Millman.
“But if I can get through it, you want to be playing the best players in the world and you want to be playing on the biggest courts, win or lose.”
Thompson’s reward for the straight-sets victory over Bublik is a second-round encounter against No.12 seed Fabio Fognini from Italy.
Tomljanovic steamed past Latvian Anastasija Sevastova 6-1- 6-1 while veteran wildcard Rodionova ousted Kateryna Bondarenko from the Ukraine 6-3 6-7 (7-5) 6-0.
Of the other Australians in action, rising Italian star Jannik Sinner ended the campaign of Australian qualifier Max Purcell.
After losing to Rafael Nadal, Lleyton Hewitt and Roger Federer in three of his past four Open campaigns, James Duckworth suffered yet another gut-wrenching first-round exit.
The wildcard bowed out 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-4 to Aljaz Bedene from Slovenia.
Wildcard Christopher O’Connell had a narrow four-set loss to 17th seed Andrey Rublev.
