In-form Daria Gavrilova is staying cool after giving Australia's women's tennis stars their best start to the US Open in more than 30 years.
Gavrilova extended her hardcourt winning streak to six matches with a 6-2 6-1 rout of Allie Kiick to join Ashleigh Barty, Arina Rodionova and Ajla Tomljanovic as first-round winners.
It's the first time four Australian women have progressed to the second round at Flushing Meadows since 1986.
"It's nice that everyone got a win, all the girls, so we're all supporting each other, which is always helpful," Gavrilova said.
Fresh off her WTA title breakthrough in New Haven on Sunday, the world No.20 lived up to her new-found status as an Open dark horse with a clinical display on the Grandstand court.
Gavrilova needed exactly an hour to see off the world No.634, breaking Kiick seven times and dropping serve only once in recording her first victory in New York since winning the junior crown in 2010.
"It was great to get a win," she said.
"It's obviously nice to get it done in an hour. I played pretty aggressive. It was a quick one.
"I didn't think too much of what happened last week. I was just focused on what I had to do today.
"I played okay, a pretty solid first-round match, but I can still improve."
Gavrilova will return on Friday to play another American, world No.62 Shelby Rogers, a surprise French Open semi-finalist last year.
"She's obviously going to have home support and I know this girl pretty well. It's obviously going to be challenging," Australia's 25th seed said.
"She's got a pretty big game but I'm just going to get out there and do what I have to do."
Not since the days when Wendy Turnbull, Liz Minter and Liz Smylie were prominent in grand slam draws in the 1980s has Australia enjoyed such a promising start to the Open.
Turnbull, Minter and Smylie, along with Jenny Byrne and Amanda Tobin, all made it past the first round in New York 31 years ago.
Barty is already through to the third round after continuing her excellent season with a 6-1 7-6 (9-7) victory over Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Win or lose, Gavrilova can look forward to yet another career-best ranking after the Open, with the 23-year-old provisionally expected to climb from 20th to 16th in the world -- at least.
