Marcos Baghdatis edged closer to a potential third round showdown with Lleyton Hewitt after brushing aside Australian Nick Lindahl 6-2 7-5 at the Medibank International Sydney on Monday.

Baghdatis and Hewitt have not met since their epic Australian Open clash in 2008 where Hewitt prevailed in five sets in a match that lasted until 4.30 in the morning – the latest finish in Open history.

Baghdatis admitted his serve will need some work if he is to progress any further in this competition, with Lindahl giving the world No.42 a scare when he broke him to level the second set, before the Cypriot won the last three games.

“I didn’t play that good, I didn’t serve very well and had a very low percentage on first serve,” Baghdatis said.

“But I got a match of one hour, 15 minutes in the heat, that’s good. There are a lot of positive things out of this match and some negative, I’ll work on the negatives and keep the positives.”

Lindahl, who beat Bernard Tomic last month to secure a wildcard for the main draw of the Australian Open, admitted he had been overawed by playing on Ken Rosewall Arena.

“It was pretty gusty out there and there were a lot of people, I haven’t really played in that atmosphere much and it took a while to get used to,” he said.

“I didn’t play my proper game today, I just tried to go for a bit too much, I was a bit nervous.”