Bashing 39 aces to match his age, Ivo Karlovic became the oldest man to win a match at the Australian Open in over 40 years as he felled Poland's Hubert Hurkacz, a man 18 years his junior, to reach the second round.
On a sweltering day at Melbourne Park, the towering Croat's 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 7-6(3) 7-6(5) win on Court 19 made him the oldest victor at the tournament since Australian icon Ken Rosewall reached the third round of the 1978 tournament at the age of 44.
World number 73 Karlovic also became the oldest winner at any Grand Slam since a 40-year-old Jimmy Connors beat Jaime Oncins to reach the second round of the 1992 U.S. Open.
Karlovic, whose birthday falls on 28 February, will be officially middle-aged next month but said he had no intention of winding down while still fit enough to compete.
"I think I'm healthy so hopefully there will be no injuries," the 6-ft 11-in (2.11 metres) Zagreb man told Reuters at Melbourne Park.
"As long as my ranking is up and I get in to all these tournaments, I don't see any reason I should stop."
Alexander Zverev answered doubts about his fitness with a comfortable win over Aljaz Bedene in the first round of the Australian Open.
The fourth seed finished last season on a real high by beating Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic back to back to win his biggest title at the ATP Finals but arrived in Melbourne nursing a hamstring injury and then rolled an ankle in practice.
He was briefly a break down in the opening set against Bedene, back representing his native Slovenia after a spell competing for Britain, but from then on was barely troubled in a 6-4 6-1 6-4 victory.
Eighth seed Kei Nishikori looked to be in major trouble against qualifier Kamil Majchrzak when he lost the opening two sets but the Pole was stricken by cramp early in the third set and eventually called it a day trailing 3-6 6-7 (6/8) 6-0 6-2 3-0.
Last year's semi-finalist Chung Hyeon, the 24th seed, also staged an impressive comeback, recovering from two sets down to defeat Bradley Klahn 6-7 (5/7) 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 6-2 6-4.
