Andy Murray survived a scare in his first match of the year before booking his place in round two of the Adelaide International by defeating Italian Paola Lorenzi by two sets to one.
The 18-year-old from Dunblane is now just one win away from a potential meeting with former world number one and home-town favourite Lleyton Hewitt.
He did it the hard way against Italian qualifier Paolo Lorenzi, 24, who was playing his first match at ATP tour level after ousting Murray's fellow Brit Jamie Delgado in the preliminaries.
Lorenzi gave Murray a shock by taking the first set at Memorial Drive.
However, the British number three hit back to win 3-6 6-0 6-2 and will face Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych in the next round.
Murray has made reaching the top 20 of the world rankings his goal for 2006, and he begins the year ranked 64th by the ATP.
His rapid rise last year means he no longer relies on wild cards for admission to tournaments, and he will go straight into the draw for the Australian Open later this month.
Berdych beat Argentinian Agustin Calleri in three sets, 6-4 6-7 (8-6) 6-4, and should provide a sterner test for Murray.
