Alex Bolt is the first local winner on day one of the Australian Open after John Millman and Kim Birrell both bombed out.
Bolt scored a convincing victory over Slovakian Norbert Gombos to enhance his impressive record at Melbourne Park.
The left-handed South Australian overcame a third-set blip to win 6-2 6-2 4-6 6-3 and advance beyond the Open's first round for the third straight year.
Bolt stretched eventual finalist Dominic Thiem to five sets in the second round last year and made it to the last 32 in 2019 before bowing out to Alexander Zverev.
The wildcard will play either No.18 seed Grigor Dimitrov or 2014 US Open champ Marin Cilic from Croatia in the second round on Wednesday.
The news was not so good for Millman, the world No.38 going down 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 3-6 6-2 6-3 to Corentin Moutet.
The fast-finishing Frenchman stepped up when it mattered most, winning 12 of the final 14 points.
At last year's French Open, Moutet was involved in a marathon match against Lorenzo Giustino that lasted more than six hours spread over two days.
The Italian finally prevailed 18-16 in the deciding set, but Moutet on this occasion recovered from two sets to one down to prevail.
Birrell saved seven match points before succumbing to Canadian Rebecca Marino 6-0 7-6 (11-9) in one hour and 44 minutes.
Birrell has only recently returned to the tour after spending 18 months on the sidelines recovering from two bouts of elbow surgery.
The wildcard's best performance at a major came at Melbourne Park two years ago when she got to the third round before losing to three-time major winner Angelique Kerber.
There are nine Australians scheduled for action on Monday, including Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic.
