Gallant qualifiers Max Purcell and Aleksandar Vukic have bowed out of the Australian Open on a draining day of despair and delight for the home hopes at Melbourne Park.
Purcell, Vukic and Thanasi Kokkinakis were all forced to return on Wednesday after being sent home after midnight on Tuesday to sleep on unfinished business.
With more rain delaying play for another six hours on day three, the trio had to endure another anxious and lengthy wait before resuming.
While Kokkinakis needed a matter of minutes to complete a 6-1 6-2 6-2 victory over Fabio Fognini to book a second-round showstopper with five-times finalist Andy Murray, Purcell's and Vukic's Open campaigns ended in heartbreak.
When he finally managed to get back on court, Purcell - the reigning Wimbledon doubles champion with Matt Ebden - had no time to settle in against Emil Ruusuvuori.
He was trailing the Finn by two sets to one and entering a do-or-die tiebreaker in the fourth after being unable to convert either of two set points with Ruusuvuori serving at 5-4.
Purcell fended off three match points in the breaker, before fashioning two set points of his own, before finally succumbing 6-4 3-6 4-6 8-6 (13-11) on his fifth match point.
Compounding Purcell's pain was the Sydneysider's decision not to contest the doubles again with Ebden - after the pair lost last year's Open final to Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios - to instead focus all his energy on the singles.
Vukic was locked at one set all with fellow qualifier American Brandon Holt when play was stopped for the night on Tuesday with the Australian trailing 4-2 in the third.
After dropping the third set, Vukic fought back to force a decider, only to go out 6-4 1-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 in a tournament opener stretching five sets over two nights.
Jason Kubler's encouraging summer also came to an end with a spirited 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-2 second-round loss to 18th seed Karen Khachanov, the Russian 18th seed who beat Nick Kyrgios in last year's US Open quarter-finals.
Khachanov was serving for the second set when the pair engaged in a 70-shot rally, which ended after 90 seconds when a Kubler backhand clipped the net cord and dropped in.
Kubler watched the replay of the rally post-match and followed through on his promise to share it on his Instagram page.
"At the time I was pretty buggered but I watched it and I was hitting it so soft," Kubler said.
"I was doing all the running and Karen was the one running me around," Kubler told reporters.
"It was awesome that I ended up winning it."
John Millman and women's wildcard Olivia Gadecki were also caught up in the backlog of matches because of Melbourne's fickle weather and eventually got on court.
Millman was beaten 7-5 6-2 6-2 by two-time runner-up Daniil Medvedev, while Gadecki was thrashed 6-2 6-1 Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk.
The 20-year-old, who is mentored by Ash Barty, lasted just 56 minutes.
Rinky Hijikata couldn't back up Monday's heroics, going down 6-3 6-0 6-2 to third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
© AAP 2023