Bernard Tomic leads the Australian contingent into battle at Wimbledon knowing anything but a repeat of his impressive run last year will trigger a rankings crisis.
Tomic faces Russian Evgeny Donskoy in the first round on Monday and is one of seven Australians involved on the opening day.
Marinko Matosevic, Sam Groth and Luke Saville also open their campaigns in the men's draw with nation's three-strong women's contingent of Samantha Stosur, Casey Dellacqua and Jarmila Gajdosova also in action.
Only early last year, Tomic was talking about cracking the top 10 sooner rather than later after claiming his maiden ATP title in Sydney.
But he faces a very real prosect of plummeting outside the top 100 and losing his automatic entry to grand slams at the All England Club this week.
Tomic's ranking has dropped to No.82 after a dismal year in which he's struggled to reclaim his form following hip surgery in February.
The 21-year-old reached the last 16 at the All England Club last year and the ATP's rankings system requires him to defend the points earned from that run.
It means even falling in the third round this year could drop Tomic outside the top 100 for the first time since 2011 while a first-round loss could see him slip as low as around 130.
While Tomic looks capable of making a strong start against world No.100 Donskoy, a possible showdown with Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych looms large in the second round.
Tomic, though, buoyed by some encouraging recent performances on grass, isn't daunted and feels his best chance of going deep in the draw is running into a seed early.
"It's better to play these sorts of players in the early round than to play them later, once they're getting the feel of the courts as well," Tomic said.
"I'm feeling pretty good. The first match is going to be very important for me to win and break through and then who knows after?"
With his controversial father and coach John back by his side, Tomic showed glimpses of form at Queen's and Eastbourne and is confident Wimbledon's lawn will bring out his best as they often do.
"It's a different feeling here to any tournament," said Tomic, a quarter-finalist in 2011.
"I always play well here, so I'm happy to be back."
Matosevic opens his campaign against 18th-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
The Australian has only avoided facing a seed first-up in four of his 13 grand slams but he finally broke his first-round duck at last month's French Open and arrives as the nation's form player.
Groth and Saville begin against Ukrainian 21st seed Alexandr Dolgopolov and Austrian Dominic Thiem respectively in their main-draw debuts at SW19.
Australia's top-ranked player Stosur, the 17th seed, faces a tricky first-round assignment against rising Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.
Dellacqua faces Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit while wildcard Gajdosova plays unseeded Swiss Stefanie Voegele.
Australia is fielding its largest contingent at Wimbledon in 13 years with former champion Lleyton Hewitt, Nick Kyrgios, Matt Ebden and James Duckworth starting on Tuesday.
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