Five points from defeat? No matter.
Out on Court 14, on the opening day of Australian Open doubles action, six-time champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan found themselves just five points from defeat.
What happened next was typical of a team with 114 tour-level doubles titles to their name.
The Bryans rallied, staving off three break points before winning nine of the next 11 games to recover from a set and 4-4, 0/40 down to beat Marton Fucsovics and Yoshihito Nishioka 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 on Wednesday.
Chasing a first title in Melbourne since 2013 (d. Haase/Sijsling), the 2017 finalists outhit their opponents 40 winners to 27 in the one-hour, 54-minute contest. They will next face Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald, who squeezed past Thomas Fabbiano and Dudi Sela 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(4).
Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares were also made to work hard to earn their place in the second round. The fifth seeds took two hours and 17 minutes to manoeuvre their way past Americans Frances Tiafoe and Donald Young 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. The 2016 champions won two points less than their opponents but hit 12 more winners (40/28) to reach the second round where they await the winner of Thursday’s match between Paes/Raja and Basilashvili/Haider-Maurer.
Seventh seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic moved safely through to the second round, dropping just five games against Federico Delbonis and Victor Estrella Burgos. They will battle Wesley Koolhof and Artem Sitak who breezed past Peter Gojowczyk and Florian Mayer 6-2, 6-1.
Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez, the ninth seeds, also navigated their way through their opening round match, defeating Florin Mergea and Nenad Zimonjic 6-2, 6-4 in 74 minutes. Next up for the Spanish duo is Ben Mclachlan and Jan-Lennard Struff. The Japanese-German duo beat Aussies Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jordan Thompson 6-4, 6-3.
Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah also took care of Australian opposition as they hit 26 winners to edge Marc Polmans and Andrew Whittington 7-6(5), 7-6(4). They will face Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya who stormed past Julien Benneteau and Jonathan Eysseric 6-3, 6-0.
There was one seeded casualty however, as 13th seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta were upset by French duo Hugo Nys and Benoit Paire 6-4, 0-6, 6-2 to progress in the second quarter of the draw.