Australia finally tasted some tennis success at the London Olympics with Lleyton Hewitt advancing to the second round after a hard-fought win over Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Not for the first time in his career, Australia's hopes rested on Hewitt's shoulders, and he didn't disappoint as he carved out an impressive 6-3 4-6 6-3 win at Wimbledon.
The Australians have had a disastrous time of it so far at the Olympics, with Bernard Tomic and Sam Stosur both losing their first-round singles matches and both women's doubles combinations bowing out on the opening day.
Hewitt will face Marin Cilic in the second round after the Croatian beat Austrian Jurgen Meltzer 7-6 (7-5) 6-2, with a potential third-round match against world No.2 Novak Djokovic awaiting the winner.
Former world No.1 Hewitt - whose ranking has dropped to 159 - took little time to get going against world No.98 Stakhovsky, breaking the Ukrainian in the third game of the opening set.
Games stayed on serve until the ninth game, when Hewitt set up three set points after Stakhovsky hit a forehand long.
Stakhovsky saved two of them before an ill-advised drop shot allowed Hewitt to pounce.
There was nothing in a tight second set in warming conditions, neither player getting to break point before Stakhovsky broke the Hewitt serve for the only time in the match - the Ukrainian serving out the set with an ace.
The sprinkling of Australian fans - which included Greg Norman in Hewitt's box - did their best to lift the 31-year-old who responded with a backhand down the line earning him the crucial break at 4-2.
From there he was never headed, his sixth ace of the contest setting up three match points.
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