Statham, fresh from beating fellow New Zealander Dan King-Turner 6-2 7-5 yesterday, will play the winner of the court four match today between Spaniard Albert Montanes and Australian James Lemke.
Statham, 22, already knows a bit about Montanes, who beat him 6-4 6-4 at the same tournament two years ago.
Montanes is the eighth seed and ranked 31 in the world but has played most of his best tennis on clay and his victory over Statham is his only win in four visits to the Auckland ATP tournament.
"I lost in two sets and I didn't go into it in my best shape," Statham said of their 2008 encounter.
"Montanes plays a similar type of style to me, just better. If I face him I'm just going to have to play the way I play but just step it up."
Lemke, a 21-year-old Australian, is a rare overseas player ranked below Statham in the open draw. He was ranked 456 coming into this tournament - Statham was 332 - though he will move up after winning three matches to qualify for the tournament.
Statham earned his way into the second round after showing more mental toughness than King-Turner, who was favourite for the match due to his higher ranking of 263.
King-Turner had the greater tennis weaponry, his serve in particular much more damaging than Statham's.
But he appeared to lose concentration and confidence at times, and also probably was too eager to come to the net.
"Dan has an all-court game so I was expecting that," Statham said. "I had the opportunity to pass him or lob and I did that pretty well."
King-Turner won the first two games of the match but then proceeded to lose the next six, too often being picked off at the net by Statham off ordinary approach shots.
King-Turner broke early again in the second set but blew a chance to serve the set out at 5-4. He then lost the next two games to exit the tournament.
"It was one of the worst games I've played in 12 months," King-Turner said.
"My serve wasn't going well in the first set, and when I got into position to win the second set my baseline game let me down.
"I will have to take a step back when I am not so frustrated and think about what happened."
Statham couldn't round off the day perfectly in the night session, when he and twin brother Oliver went down 6-3 6-2 to fellow New Zealander Marcus Daniell and Horia Tecau of Romania.
In the other two first round singles matches yesterday, Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci looked an exciting prospect when beating Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland 6-3 6-3, and sixth seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria came from a set down to beat Italian Fabio Fognini 5-7 6-3 6-2.
The other singles matches of the day saw four players, including Lemke, earn their main draw spots with qualifying victories.
Lemke's victim, Inigo Cervantes-Huegun, of Spain also later in the day squeaked into the draw after one of the tournament's main drawcards, David Nalbandian, pulled out with injury.
Nalbandian was set to make his return to ATP Tour tennis after eight months off due to a hip injury but strained an abdominal muscle in training.
"I am very disappointed not to be able to make my comeback this week at the Heineken Open," Nalbandian said.
" Although I am disappointed at the moment, I remain confident and positive about making a full time come back to the tour soon."
