Today, he is at no. 64 after one of the biggest rankings jumps of 1998, has a career-best berth in the fourth round of a Grand Slam, and is the proud new owner of his first sponsorship shirt patch.

``Just don't ask him what the sponsor, who came on board since last week, sells. Patches maybe, shirts?'' said the Australian, looking at the stitched acronym on his sleeve. No disrespect to the sponsors, but I don't know. I'll tell you next time.''

``Eager not to offend his new backers, Ilie, 22, made a point of leaning his patched sleeve toward the TV cameras during a news conference. This is a first so I'm really excited.''

Ilie, who at 5 foot, 7 inches gets extra height by leaping off the court to make his strokes, served not a single double fault and hit 47 winners to his opponent's 9 for a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 win over Norway's Christian Ruudin the third round of the Australian Open.

The unseeded Ruud upset no. 2 seed Alex Corretja in a five-set marathon in the second round.

``He hits the ball extremely hard,'' Ruud said of Ilie. ``I didn't have time to get my game going.''

Despite 54 unforced errors, 45 of which were forehands, Ilie rocketed passing shots on both sides, helping gain 21 break points, of which he converted six.

``Sometimes he really surprised me when I had him on the run and he seems to be closing his eyes and hitting a winner on the line,'' Ruud said.

Ilie, who admits to a long list of superstitions such as the red bandana he wears tied around his head, bouncing the ball a certain number of times before each serve, and adjusting his socks before points had never been past the third round in seven previous Grand Slam events.

``I really wanted to break that spell,'' he said.

From 473rd in the rankings at the end of 1997, the Romanian-born Ilie climbed 414 positions in 1998 to end at 59, before slipping to 64. Alongthe way, he conducted his own research and learned his lessons.

``You go out there and play (rubbish), you get off the court, you ponder on the match, you think about it hard, you learn some more,'' he said.

``I'm a really smart guy, because I've been losing a lot in the past four months.''

Already the losses seem like a long time ago and he is unconcerned about the task ahead.

``Looking ahead at the draw is really overrated,'' he said. ``I prefer to take it match by match and see what happens.''

Ilie will play Ecuador's 91st-ranked Nicolas Lapenti on Saturday for a place in the quarterfinals.