Former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt is seeking more silverware as he bids for a first Australian Open title this month.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Lleyton Hewitt defeats Frenchman Gael Monfils in his final Australian Open warm-up
- Australian will be making his 15th successive appearance at the grand slam
- He starts against old rival David Nalbandian, who loses final of Auckland Open
- Australia's rising star Jarmila Groth wins women's event in Hobart on Saturday
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(CNN) -- Lleyton Hewitt hopes his first experience of playing at the Australian Open's former venue in Kooyong will stand him in good stead for his 15th consecutive appearance at the season's first grand slam next week.
The 29-year-old Australian won the Kooyong Classic exhibition event, beating France's Gael Monfils 7-5 6-3 in the final on Saturday for his third win of the week.
His home major tournament moved from the suburbs to central-city Melbourne Park in 1988, and his career began as precocious teenager almost a decade later.
Former world No. 1 Hewitt, a two-time grand slam champion and a losing Australian Open finalist in 2005, will be unseeded after slipping to 54th in the rankings following an injury-hit 2010.
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He decided against entering the official ATP season-opening events in Brisbane and Sydney, instead playing at the mixed teams Hopman Cup event in Perth and then Kooyong.
Hewitt beat top Russian duo Mikhail Youzhny and Nikolay Davydenko before meeting Monfils, and feels ready for his opening match in Melbourne against former No. 3 David Nalbandian -- who lost to Spanish top seed David Ferrer in the final of New Zealand's Auckland Open on Saturday.
It will be the feature match of the opening round, a rematch of the duo's 2002 Wimbledon final and 2005 Australian Open quarterfinal, both won by Hewitt.
"I felt pretty comfortable this week and only time will tell over the next couple of weeks if it was the perfect preparation," he told the ATP website.
"But at the moment I'm extremely excited about winning three tough matches. 'I've done everything possible and feel like my game is where I wanted it to be 10 weeks ago, and physically I feel good.
"Ten weeks ago when I sat down with Rochey (his coach Tony Roche, a former French Open winner who has also worked with tennis greats Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer) and talked about what we wanted to work on and get out of that training block. I think we've been able to do that, so we've done the best preparation possible."
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World No. 7 Ferrer regained the hardcourt title he first won back in 2007 as he defeated Nalbandian 6-3 6-2.
He ended a three-match losing run against Nalbandian, who is seeded 27th in Melbourne, ahead of his opening match against Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.
At the Sydney Invitational, Gilles Simon became the first Frenchman to win the men's title in 20 years as he beat Serbian fourth seed Viktor Troicki 7-5 7-6 (7-4) in just under two hours.
Troicki, seeded 29th in Melbourne, will take on Russia's Dmitry Tursunov in his opening match while Simon plays Taiwan's 35th-ranked Yen-Hsun Lu.
Defending champion Roger Federer faces Slovakia's No. 99 Lukas Lacko first up, while No. 1 Rafael Nadal begins his bid to hold all four grand slams against Brazil's No. 96 Marcos Daniel.
Third seed Novak Djokovic plays Spain's world No. 42 Marcel Granollers, fourth seed Robin Soderling is up against Italy's 47th-ranked Potito Starace and fifth seed Andy Murray faces Slovakian No. 104 Karol Beck.
Meanwhile, Jarmila Groth won the women's event in Hobart, with the Australian sixth seed beating American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4 6-3 in Saturday's final.
Groth, who knocked out Australian No. 1 Sam Stosur in Brisbane, won her second WTA Tour title ahead of her opening match against Belgian 21st seed Yanina Wickmayer in Melbourne.
Mattek-Sands has an easier task as she faces one of the qualifiers, as does last year's runner-up Justine Henin.
World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki faces Argentina's Gisela Dulko as she seeks her first grand slam title, while second-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva plays Austria's Sybille Bammer.
Third seed and 2004 runner-up Kim Clijsters faces Russia's former No. 1 Dinara Safina in perhaps the highlight of the first round, and fourth seed Venus Williams -- the 2003 losing finalist -- takes on Italy's Sara Errani.
