Bernard Tomic is keeping his fingers crossed for a more favourable first-round draw for the Australian Open on Friday morning after being paired against Rafael Nadal last year.
Tomic, who crashed out of the Sydney International on Thursday night after a hard-fought 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (15-13) defeat to Gilles Muller, will head to Melbourne two days earlier than last year when he reached the final at Sydney Olympic Park.
Last January, the world No.71 was forced to retire after the first set against 2009 champion Nadal due to a groin tear and underwent hip surgery that sidelined him for three months.
But he claims he'll go into the opening grand slam of 2015 both in confident mood and great physical shape having reached the quarter-finals in both Sydney and Brisbane this month.
"I did a lot of fitness work to help me be better on the court and to move better," Tomic said,
"Sometimes movement and fitness won't help you against a guy like Muller.
"It's not every now and then you play these matches, so to get this match like this before the Australian Open, win or lose, for me it's very good, very motivating.
"I believe I can play very good down in Melbourne. I'm going to practise the next few days and hopefully I can get a better draw than last year."
Tomic's surgery kept him out of Australia's Davis Cup tie with France last February and, at the time, he was reluctant to go under the knife but he now concedes it was the right decision.
"I had to do it somewhere in my career, and I chose to do it at the age 21," he said.
"If I'd waited until the age of 24, 25 to do my hips, it probably would've taken a year to recover."
"It's tough what I experienced last year in the Australian Open.
"But I think that's the worst you can experience and I learned a lot from that.
"I'm a much better player, fitter, stronger. For me it's a huge opportunity coming back to Melbourne. With the right draw I can definitely do some damage."
The Sydney International women's final will be an all-Czech affair with world No.2 Petra Kvitova up against Karolina Pliskova.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova hasn't lost in 14 encounters with her compatriots and will be strong favourite to win on Ken Rosewall Arena after beating defending champion Tsvetana Pironkova 7-5 6-1 on Thursday.
The men's semi-finals will feature Kazakhstan qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin playing fifth-seeded Argentine Leonardo Mayer with Luxembourg's Muller up against Viktor Troicki of Serbia.
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