Ash Barty has defied intense pressure and expectation to become the first home hope to win the Australian Open singles crown in 44 years.
The world No.1 completed a dream fortnight at Melbourne Park with a steely 6-3 7-6 (7-2) victory over American Danielle Collins in the most-anticipated women's Open final in almost half a century.
Unlike her romp through to the championship decider, Saturday night's victory was gut-wrenchingly hard-earned with Barty needing to fight back from 5-1 down in the second set before prevailing after one hour and 27 tension-filled minutes.
Despite the late wobble, the straight-sets win ensured Barty's march to the title was the most commanding campaign since Steffi Graf in the second-ever Open at Melbourne Park in 1989.
Utterly dominant since her 6-0 6-1 first-round win over Lesia Tsurenko, Barty didn't drop a single set all tournament, conceding a meagre 30 games in seven matches - just six more than Graf 33 lost years ago.
Fittingly, Chris O'Neil, who had held the honour as the last Australian to win the Open women's singles in 1978, delivered the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup to Rod Laver Arena for the presentation.
Barty's drought-breaking success follows the Queenslander's 2019 French Open triumph and last year's memorable Wimbledon win.
In addition to busting the infamous home hoodoo in Melbourne, Barty also joins the great Serena Williams as only the second active player in women's tennis to have captured grand slam titles on clay, grass and hard courts.
The 25-year-old all-court queen will head to New York in August hoping to follow in Williams' footsteps there too by completing the coveted career slam with title glory at the US Open, the only major still eluding Barty.