Andy Off Down Under

G’day andyroddick.com! Andy will soon be heading to the Land of Oz in the sizzling heat of the Australian summer, destination Melbourne, to begin preparations for the first Grand Slam of the year: The Australian Open.

Andy’s first event of 2005, will be the Kooyong Classic, at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club from January 12-15. Joining Andy there will be a real ripper of a field comprising of Federer, Henman, Agassi, Nalbandian, Gaudio, Massu and Srichaphan. “This is probably our best field ever” said Tournament Director, Colin Stubs. “I will be delighted and privileged to welcome the above eight players to Kooyong.”

With play starting next Wednesday, there will be four matches on the opening day, three on Thursday and Friday, and then the two finals will be played on Saturday. In recent years the format has been that the players move left or right in the draw depending on whether they win or lose their opening matches.

This is an alternative approach in terms of preparation for the Australian Open. Instead of playing in one of the ATP tournaments preceding the Australian Open, Andy has decided to train hard in Texas and Florida before flying to Australia. With the round robin format of the Kooyong Classic, Andy will be guaranteed some hard fought matches to fine tune his game and competitive edge.

This will be Andy’s first tournament with his new coach, Dean Goldfine, and both player and coach expect to do well in Kooyong and enter the Australian Open razor sharp.