Samantha Stosur has battled through injury to reach the French Open second round following a gutsy third-set fightback, while Bernard Tomic became the third Australian male first-round victor this week.
Elsewhere the news wasn't so good for the Australians, with Sam Groth predictably falling in straight sets to the King of Clay Rafael Nadal, John Millman going down to 15th seed John Isner and Arina Rodionova also defeated.
Stosur, who held a one-set lead in her match before bad light stopped play on Monday, fought back from a break down in the third set to win five-straight games en route to a stirring 6-2 4-6 6-3 victory.
The former runner-up and two-time semi-finalist, who carried a left wrist injury into the claycourt grand slam, will face China's Shuai Zhang, her doubles partner, on Wednesday.
Stosur said the wrist felt fine after match, and let out a sigh of relief at having recovered during the third set.
"I was pretty concerned," she said.
"I wasn't feeling as good as what I was yesterday that's for sure.
"She was playing very aggressive and any opportunities she had to step into the court she was doing that and all of a sudden I felt on the backfoot.
"I had to work out a way to turn that around."
Meanwhile, despite declaring "I suck on clay" in the lead-up to his first-round match, Tomic looked assured as he closed out the straight sets victory over lowly-ranked American Brian Baker 6-3 6-4 6-4.
The win, just his third at Roland Garros from seven campaigns, matches Tomic's best ever return at his least-suited grand slam and puts him through to the second round, joining 17th seed Nick Kyrgios and wildcard Jordan Thompson.
Tomic will now face Croatian teenager Borna Coric.
The 23-year-old saved all but one of the nine break point opportunities he offered Baker, and was efficient in converting four of the seven which fell his way to take the advantage in each set.
"I felt like I served pretty good," Tomic said.
"The big points I played very well, and I was very happy with what I did."
Few gave Groth a chance against nine-times champion Nadal, and he lasted just 80 minutes in the 6-1 6-1 6-1 thrashing.
"Obviously when I look back on my career, it will be great to say I played him at the French but I probably would've preferred just about any other person in the draw," Groth said.
Millman put in a gallant effort to push the big-serving Isner in a 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (14-12) 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 defeat.
Millman had blown a golden opportunity to go two sets up late on Monday night when he squandered eight set points as darkness took over Roland Garros, before sending a regulation overhead smash wide to concede the set.
He refused to give up the fight when play resumed on Tuesday, but ultimately succumbed to Isner's monster serve - with the American sending down 40 aces in the four-set win.
Meanwhile, Rodionova became the first Australian casualty of the tournament when she lost 6-2 6-3 to Croatian teenager Ana Konjuh in 62 minutes.
Rodionova was broken twice in the first set as Konjuh raced to a 5-1 lead inside 20 minutes, with the Australian making seven unforced errors while hitting just four winners.
Rodionova made her young opponent work harder in the second set, fighting through a seven-minute opening game to hold serve, but conceded the crucial break in the seventh game to go down 4-3 as Konjuh motored to victory with another break.
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