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With neither pomp nor ceremony Andy Roddick and Amelie Mauresmo were jettisoned from the Australian Open, beaten by unheralded journeymen on a bleak night for the former world No 1s.
Mauresmo and her fragile temperament succumbed to the tenacity of homegrown baseliner Casey Dellacqua while Roddick's brittle gameplan
was picked apart by little-known but gifted German Philipp Kohlschreiber, a winner at the Heineken Open a week ago.
The night shocks came hard on the heels of a Friday which had proved fertile for the seeds - Justine Henin, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal all winning - and provided much needed drama at the season's opening grand slam.
Roddick's demise, a fittingly dramatic, explosive and bad-tempered 6-4 3-6 7-6 6-7 8-6 loss as moths fluttered in the early hours of the Melbourne morning, illustrated the danger the world's best face every time they step on court.
"I just said to myself, 'full power on every shot'," Kohlschreiber told the crowd," sharing his tactic.
Roddick had no answer to the man in the luminous green shirt with the sledgehammer backhand.
Frustration filled him. He shouted at himself, at the umpire Emmanuel Joseph - "You're an idiot, stay in school kids, or you'll end up being an umpire" - at the crowd. Nothing worked and, despite a career-best 42 aces in a match, he folded just after 2am.
"It's not good, it's not fun... I am trying to think of a new and exciting way to say that," Roddick told reporters. "He was swinging from the first ball. I don't know if I had two feet set the whole match."
Kohlschreiber next has Jarkko Nieminen in his sights but at least Roddick had put up a fight.
Mauresmo has much soul-searching to do after her latest disappointing showing.
Dellacqua has neither the court-craft nor the shot-making of Kohlschreiber, yet she captivated Melbourne Park and filled local hearts with pride by beating Mauresmo.
"It's just an absolutely wonderful feeling," a tearful Dellacqua sobbed after her 3-6 6-4 6-4 victory. "I am shaking so much, I am so excited."
Giant-killers had been in short supply at the year's first grand slam and so it continued as day five opened with champion Serena Williams and top seed Henin slicing through to the fourth round.
They were joined by fifth seed Maria Sharapova, No 3 Jelena Jankovic, men's second seed Nadal and No 4 Nikolay Davydenko.
With the tournament free-wheeling along smoothly, few expected Dellacqua to jam such a stick in the spokes but she upended Mauresmo with free hitting and brave counter attacking.
Mauresmo, seeded 18th after a spell of injuries, acknowledged her lack of confidence was a factor.
"Confidence and really not keeping in mind the aggression that I should have [had]," she mulled.
Henin advanced by beating tricky Italian Francesca Schiavone 7-5 6-4.
"Francesca is always a tough player, tough opponent, and I knew that," the top seed told reporters. "I knew it would be a good fight."
Henin, who has now won 31 consecutive matches since losing in last year's Wimbledon semifinals to Marion Bartoli, meets Hsieh Su-wei for a place in the quarters after the Taiwanese player ousted France's Aravane Rezai.
Williams eased through with a routine 6-3 6-4 win over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and next up for her is the 12th-seeded Czech, Nicole Vaidisova.
Jankovic shrugged off fatigue and nagging injuries to beat Virginie Razzano 6-2 4-6 6-1 and Sharapova swatted aside identikit opponent Elena Vesnina 6-3 6-0.
Nadal shrugged off a slow start to overwhelm Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-5 6-2 6-3 and line up a meeting with 23rd seed Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.
- REUTERS