Kooyong Preview

Hopping from Hawaii to Melbourne, Australia, this weekend, Andy will commence his 2008 campaign at the AAMI Kooyong Classic exhibition on Wednesday, January 9th. Celebrating it’s 20th year running, this four-day tournament will boast three matches a day for three days with the final being on Saturday the 12th.

Andy is the defending champion here from both 2006 and 2007, and is looking to get a “hat trick”, three titles, like previous American greats Andre Agassi and Michael Chang did. In the eight man field, Andy will be facing some, well, familiar faces. Returning runner-up Roger Federer, Marat Safin, Tommy Haas, Fernando Gonzalez, David Nalbandian, Ivan Ljubicic, and Andy Murray will all be playing in Kooyong Stadium in addition to Andy. Gonzalez is taking the spot that Radek Stepanek held last year while all of the others are returning players.

With the summer wind at his back, let Andy’s first on-court battle of the year begin. The draw will be on Tuesday, January 8th, so stay tuned to AR.com to see who Andy takes on in his 2008 kick-off match. Go Andy!