Lleyton Hewitt's Davis Cup team, built in his own battling image, have "fought their guts out" from the brink of elimination to keep their hopes alive with a 2-1 comeback triumph over France in Manchester.
Not for the first time, their last-ditch saviours were Alex de Minaur, who prevailed in his must-win singles against Ugo Humbert, and the doubles maestros Matt Ebden and Max Purcell, who won for the second day running in a crucial final rubber.
Their triumph on Thursday (Friday AEST) at the AO Arena ensures the Australians now have more than a fighting chance of making the finals in Malaga again in November.
"Alex went out there and knew he had to get the job done and he was a soldier," said Ebden. "We were then just grateful to have a chance to save the day in a super important one, a must-win one.
"We were super confident together, we believe in ourselves incredibly and we believe in this team, its fighting spirit. We came close last year and we want to do better this year.
"We had to fight our guts out to keep that chance alive and we have to do it again on Saturday (against Switzerland)."
Defeat would surely have condemned last year's finalists to an early exit in this week's round-robin group stage at the English venue but Purcell, who lost the opening rubber to Adrian Mannarino on his Cup singles debut, bounced back with his 2022 Wimbledon-winning partner in the decider.
The old 'M & M' double act outclassed French veterans Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-5 6-3 to give the Aussies the 2-1 victory that now throws their four-team group wide open, with only two to qualify for the finals in Spain.
Australia, Britain, and France all have a win each, with Hewitt's team still in a strong position if they can beat Switzerland, who lost their opening match 3-0 to the French.
For Aussie No.2 Purcell, frustrated to lose to canny southpaw veteran Mannarino 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 on his singles bow, there was still an air of certainty as he and Ebden reunited in what he feels is the world's best doubles partnership.
"Any time we have a live doubles, I feel it's almost game over for us," shrugged Purcell, who'd earned a crucial win with Ebden over Britain's Dan Evans and Neal Skupski the night before.
And de Minaur also felt he'd redeemed himself after his sub-par Wednesday loss to Evans as he produced a far superior effort to tame Humbert 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 for his eighth win in his last 10 Davis Cup singles rubbers.
"A bit of redemption for sure," said de Minaur. "If I lost today, we were out.
"I haven't had too many days like yesterday, I normally deliver when I put in the green and gold. I didn't do anything extraordinary; the only thing I did was keep us alive."
'Demon', up to a career-best world No.12, had been beaten by Humbert on a hard court in Atlanta in July, but this time summoned an inspired spell at the end of the key opening set when he won 11 out of 13 points, roaring from 5-6 down to end up a comfortable tiebreak winner.
Then, egged on by the passionate Hewitt at courtside, he outplayed the leftie in the decider.
"Alex, bloody impressive again today," said Hewitt, recognising in de Minaur a player in his mould.
"To come from one down, he's done it plenty of times but that match was really high quality, and then the boys played a great doubles."
