After taking only four days off tennis last year, veteran Arina Rodionova is hoping a more relaxed approach will reward her with a wilcard at this year's playoff at Melbourne Park.
Last year the 28-year-old entered the 16-player tournament exhausted as she chased ranking points at the end of the season to try to crack the world's top 100.
This year Rodionova is coming in after four weeks away from tennis - the longest break, apart from injury-enforced, she's had since first picking up a racquet.
During her holiday she put her feet up in Bali and went to Turkey for the wedding of her sister, former professional Anastasia.
"I did the opposite this year and that was really nice and refreshing," said Rodianova, the top seed at the wildcard playoff.
"I really needed the break. I've had a long year and have been travelling since January non-stop until October.
"I just started training back last Monday and I feel very excited to be on court now, it doesn't matter if it's a practice session or a match, I'm not tired of it all."
Ranked 170, Rodionova was unable to give her new approach a solid test in her first round match against Olivia Tjandramulia.
She broke the 21-year-old in the opening set and dominated for a 6-1 scoreline.
The marathon fourth game was crucial as Tjandramulia eventually lost her serve to trail 4-1 and appeared to injure her neck.
At the end of the set she called for a trainer and had a medical timeout and after going down 0-1 in the second retired from the match in tears.
"It's a shame for her. I hope it's nothing serious and she will be right for the summer," Rodianova said.
The win booked a quarter-final match-up with No.5 seed Astra Sharma, who got past Isabelle Wallace 3-6 6-1 6-4.
In other results in the first round of the women's draw, eighth seed Kimberly Birrell overcame national under 18s champion Gabriella Da Silva-Fick while third seed Jaimee Fourlis had a tight win over Maddison Inglis.
Other winners include second seed Ellen Perez and Zoe Hives.
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