Ashleigh Barty has completed a banner first day for Australia's women's tennis stars with a crushing win over the US Open's 21st seed.
Barty opened up the draw for herself with a 4-6 6-0 6-1 triumph over highly-rated Croat Ana Konjuh to join Arina Rodionova and Ajla Tomljanovic in the second round.
Flying after collecting her maiden WTA title in New Haven on Sunday, former US Open junior champion Daria Gavrilova will have the chance to make it four from four for Australia's women on Wednesday.
And that's without injured 2011 champion and former world No.4 Samantha Stosur leading the charge.
"It's great. Obviously we had a pretty good day and I feel like Aussie women's tennis is moving in the right direction," Barty said.
"It would be nice to have Sam here as well but we're all comfortable on these courts and hopefully Dasha can play well tomorrow as well.
"I feel like where we are as a Fed Cup team, as a tennis nation, is a pretty good spot."
The promising start to the season's final grand slam event comes after Rodionova was Australia's only first-round winner at Wimbledon.
"I certainly don't think there was panic or anything. It wasn't like we were smashed and hit off the court," Barty said.
"It just didn't quite fall our way. It's positive that we've been able to flick the switch and get it moving here.
"But we've also had a really good summer, with Dash playing amazing last week and I've played some good matches and had another solid (preparation) leading in.
"It's just been a really consistent year and we're super pleased with that."
In further evidence of her impressive maturity, the 21-year-old held her nerve after falling behind 4-0 in the opening set before winning 16 of the last 19 games against Konjuh.
"Even though it was 4-0 pretty quickly, I knew all I needed to do was settle and get myself into the match," Barty said.
"There was still a long way to go and I knew that once I could find my first serve and get myself into the point and extend the points a little bit, it was hopefully going to work out in my favour."
Barty's victory came in her first match at Flushing Meadows since quitting the sport after the 2014 Open and enjoying a stint in Women's Big Bash League.
The former Wimbledon junior champion's reward is a meeting with world No.88 Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Thursday.
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