Andy Murray's tally of only 12 games conceded from the first two rounds of the Australian Open looks mightily accomplished - until you compare it to that of Rafael Nadal.
The world No 1 has lost only four, and the comparison of these two impressive numbers rather encapsulates the unfortunate situation facing the 23-year-old Scot at this stage of his career.
Great Scot: Andy celebrates beating Marchenko in straight sets to ease though to the third round
He can play to an extremely high level and be making improvements, but there is always this wondrous Spaniard, or a Swiss legend, standing in his way.
If Murray has played with admirable efficiency to date, then Nadal has looked little short of awesome.
Handy Andy: Murray signs autographs for the crowd
Admittedly neither has played anyone great so far, and both had first round opponents who ended up retiring with injury.
On Thursday, Murray beat Ukraine's Ilya Marchenko 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 while Nadal allowed American Ryan Sweeting just the four games.
Now Murray plays one of the many Spaniards in the Mallorcan's slipstream, world No 32 Guillermo Garcia Lopez, who he beat in straight sets at Queen's Club in 2009.
A neat baseliner with a pleasing backhand who is at a career high ranking, Murray will probably beat him again and take one step closer to a possible semi-final meeting with Nadal as he attempts to win a fourth straight Grand Slam.
If that happens one player he will not be up against in the fourth round will be the returning US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro, who was beaten in the final evening match over four sets by Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.
Garcia-Lopez is one of those Murray can get past with his regulation baseline game, the kind he applied to defeating the cocksure Marchenko, who swung adventurously but with all the intelligence you might expect of someone who wears a baseball cap back to front.
Murray enjoyed the raucous atmosphere of playing on the Margaret Court Arena, the No 3 stadium at Melbourne Park where seating is unticketed and first come-first served, and into which packed a supportive crowd of expatriates and travelling fans.
Strong following: fans cheer on Murray as he books his place in the third round of the Aussie Open
The atmosphere was further aided by both players' annoyance at a succession of poor line calls with no Hawkeye to correct them.
In truth he did not treat them to a vintage display, and declined to use the occasion to try out the more expansive game that will be needed should he reach the bigger challenges next week.