Ajla Tomljanovic has backed up her bold words with actions to march confidently into the US Open second round at Flushing Meadows.
Tomljanovic accounted for dangerous Czech Karolina Muchova 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), to become the first Australian women's winner of the 2022 Open.
Daria Saville earlier on day one ran out of steam in a valiant 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 first-round loss to Elena Gabriela Ruse of Romania.
Saville was backing up from the final in Quebec on Saturday and the tight turnaround after four matches last week proved a bridge too far.
Tomljanovic, though, arrived in New York believing "anything can happen" after following up her second straight charge to the Wimbledon quarterfinals with nine wins on American hard courts this summer swing.
After initially struggling to fill the role as new Australian number 1 following Ash Barty's shock retirement in March, Tomljanovic took her game to new levels.
The 29-year-old capped her impressive build-up with a run from qualifying all the way to the last eight in Cincinnati and looms as an unseeded player to avoid this fortnight.
Muchova has the distinction of being the last player to topple Barty at Melbourne Park, having taken out the former world number 1 in the 2021 quarterfinals.
But Tomljanovic had too many guns for the Czech, advancing to the second round in 1 hour, 48 minutes on Monday.
Tomljanovic's recent run of success also includes a victory over world number 4 Paula Badosa, further proving to herself that she belongs at the pointy end of major championships.
"The player that I am, I think on the day I can beat anyone if I'm playing good tennis," Tomjlanovic said.
The aggressive baseliner next faces Russian Evgeniya Rodina and could strike either retiring 23-times grand slam champion Serena Williams or world number 2 Anett Kontiveit in round three.
De Minaur rolls on with win over Serbian
Meanwhile, Alex de Minaur continued his hot American summer to steam into the US Open second round in New York.
The Australian number 1 carved out a 7-5 6-2 6-3 victory over Serbian Filip Krajinovic to live up to his 18th seeding status.
The straight-sets victory atoned for a first-round exit last year after previously producing his two best grand slam results at Flushing Meadows.
He was a quarter-finalist in 2020 and reached the last 16 the year before.
Relishing the faster conditions, de Minaur swept past Krajinovic in less than 2 hours to book a potential rematch against his Wimbledon conqueror, Cristian Garin.
"Happy to get a win against a tough opponent. I thought I did what I needed to do out there and very happy to be in the second round," de Minaur said.
"Nice, hot, quick, swirly conditions. It wasn't, as I would call it, beautiful tennis but I did exactly what I needed to do.
"At times I expect perfect tennis out of myself. Reality of the sport is that it's not always going to come, so it's about adapting and kind of just being able to accept mistakes.
"That's for me the biggest thing. Just move on and keep fighting and try to win every point out there and staying in the moment.
"Over five sets, it's definitely tough to get through me."
Garin broke de Minaur's heart at the All England Club last month, fighting back from two sets down and saving a match point to deny the Australian a place in the quarterfinals.
The Chilean was up against Czech Jiri Lehecka in his opener in New York later on day one.
"Good thing is I'm in the second round and they're out there on court right now," de Minaur said.
"I'll take whoever I have to play. It will be just another match. Look, of course, if I play Garin, then hopefully I can get some revenge."
De Minaur arrived at the season's final major full of confidence after snaring his sixth career title four weeks ago in Atlanta and also claiming two top-25 scalps in Montreal.
"The one thing I would say coming into this match I probably haven't had before is the confidence in myself that I'm very tough to beat over five sets if I'm there competing every single point," the world number 20 said.
"Especially in hot conditions, I was ready to play for as long as I needed to. That gave me a bit of confidence."
Jordan Thompson also moved through to the second round in a brave five set performance, defeating his Italian opponent Lorenzo Sonego 2-6, 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
De Minaur's first projected seeded opponent is Spain's world number 15 and two-time US Open semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta in round three.
John Millman crashed out with a five-set loss to American wildcard Emilio Nava.
