In the zone, Alex de Minaur has no plans to take his foot off the pedal as he braces for a second-round danger match at Melbourne Park.
Having firmly declared himself a title contender after his lightning-fast first-round win over Mackenzie McDonald, de Minaur is on guard against a letdown against world No.90 Hamad Medjedovic on Wednesday.
Australia's world No.6 boasts a perfect 17-from-17 record against lower-ranked rivals in Melbourne, but is too savvy to underestimate the big-hitting Serb.
"Well, he is extremely talented. He's got a lot of firepower," de Minaur said of the rising 22-year-old compatriot of 10-time Open king Novak Djokovic.
"We've seen he's already taken some big scalps in his career.
"He's got a big serve, big groundstrokes, so it's going to be up to me to try and neutralise as much as I can and hopefully not be a punching bag."
Up there with world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz as the game's premier mover, de Minaur is backing his speed around the court and aggressive counter-punching to trouble Medjedovic. "That's been one of my attributes, right? Ultimately my ball-striking ability or the natural shape or shot that I have on both of my groundstrokes, it's on the flatter side so it means that the ball skids through when it hits the court," he said.
"I have always felt that I have been able to use my speed to retrieve and play defensive, but one of the biggest things that has helped me take that next step is use my speed to take time away from my opponents and that's where court positioning is super important.
"If the ball is coming back to your opponent quicker and quicker, it's not really allowing him to think most of the time.
"So that's why it's so effective for me when the rallies start going and we're going side to side and the ball is coming back quick and flat.
"It's not that easy to keep being aggressive even to the point that it's going to get to a point where I'm going to get the short ball, and then I'm going to be able to dictate."
But there is a challenging path ahead if he negotiates the powerful Medjedovic, with dual grand slam semi-finalist Frances Tiafoe (third round), 10th seed Alexander Bublik (fourth round) and world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz (quarter-finals) potential upcoming foes.
A victory over Medjedovic would vault de Minaur into a third-round battle with either American Tiafoe or unseeded Argentine Francisco Comesana.
Fellow Australians Jordan Thompson, Rinky Hijikata, Priscilla Hon, Storm Hunter and Ajla Tomljanovic are also in second-round action on Wednesday.
Thompson plays Portugal's Nuno Borges, Hijikata faces Monaco's Valentin Vacherot, Hon takes on rising American Iva Jovic, Hunter is up against Hailey Baptiste and Tomljanovic squares off with Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
