Spanish 10th seed Pablo Carreno Busta has rallied to deny local wildcard Jason Kubler of a first victory at a major on day one of the Australian Open.
The match was evenly poised when rain halted play early for half an hour in the third set.
Carreno Busta claimed a tight third set and then powered away to win 7-5 4-6 7-5 6-1 in three hours and 31 minutes.
World No.243 Kubler dropped all four of his service games in the final set.
The Australian’s only previous outing at his home major came as a 16-year-old wildcard in 2010, when he was ousted in the opening round by Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, now coach of Roger Federer.
In the intervening years, Kubler — a former junior world No.1 ranked junior — suffered a string of serious knee injuries.
He was one of nine Australians in action on day one of the Open.