For anybody doubting the strength of men's tennis, take a look at the quality of the field for the AAPT Championships starting in Adelaide tomorrow.

You've got Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Gustavo Kuerten, Thomas Enqvist, Nicolas Kiefer and all the Aussies except Mark Philippoussis, who's over at the Hopman Cup.

It's a real tough field and it's going to be a very open tournament. It's going to be a fantastic way to start the new season.  It will be really interesting so see how everybody has prepared. Some guys will be ready to go, others will be hoping to work
their way through the tournament.

I'm going in hoping to play my best and the tournament will be a good gauge to my form ahead of the adidas International and The Australian Open.

While I will not be putting too much pressure on my left knee, I am hoping to produce my best.I tend to feel it the most on serve, but it's not a huge problem. I've been doing a lot of strength work on the knee, hoping that it will improve
this season with the smaller number of tournaments I'm going to play. It is a matter of maintenance and keeping it strong so that it will hold up for the year.

The key to the AAPT Championship, with Lleyton Hewitt as the defending champion, could be the draw today. But the field is so even, anybody is capable of winning. The cut-off at the close of entries was 74 in the world, which I believe is a
record for Adelaide, and that says everything about the strength of the field.

When you consider there are Grand Slam singles and doubles champions, a former world No 1 (Courier) and Davis Cup players from all over the world. I can't see why one of the Aussies can't win it. Lleyton won it last year and Todd won the year
before, Mark Woodforde has won it twice and Scotty has been in the final. Our guys have the advantage of being at home with the chance to work hard and prepare well.

It's a bit tougher for the overseas guys. They usually want to stay at home over Christmas and then come out and so they are probably still adapting. At the same time I think our guys are capable of winning even without those factors in their
favour but the field this week is awesome.