Hewitt vows to lift his game

Lleyton Hewitt.

LLEYTON Hewitt launches his 14th Australian Open campaign on Tuesday vowing to take his game "to another level" in his desperate quest to end the 34-year local title drought.

Hewitt takes on Brazil's unknown grand slam debutant Ricardo Hocevar earnestly believing he is still the same player who roared to the Open final in 2005.

Age may have wearied him, but the 28-year-old is confident after vaulting 88 places in the rankings last season that he can revisit his glory days and challenge for major spoils in 2010.

Even if he's had to modify his prolific training habits to ensure his body can cope with a fortnight of grand slam grind.

"You're always trying to improve and work on little areas of your game but obviously I had a few setbacks with injuries and having surgery and stuff like that," Hewitt said.

"So your training sometimes alters a little bit compared to some of the stuff you may have done before.

"But it's a management thing as well. As you get older, you start getting a few niggles, you have to work around that.

"In terms of playing, I still know my A Game. If we're trying to add a few little things on the side of that, that's more to help out and maybe not be as predictable.

"But, as a whole, I've still got areas of my game I feel like I can take to another level."

Despite constant pleas from fellow former world No.1s John Newcombe and Pat Rafter to up his aggression levels, Hewitt has no plans to stray too far from the counter-attacking style that has served him so well for over a decade.

"I'm still as patient I think as anyone out there," he said.

"I like to think I play the percentages as well as anyone."

Presuming he accounts for the 192nd-ranked Hocevar, Hewitt will face either Christophe Rochus or Donald Young in the second round and then probably rejuvenated 2006 runner-up Marcos Baghdatis for a place in the last 16.

Women's 13th seed Samantha Stosur is among six other Australians in action on Tuesday.

Stosur also plays a qualifier ranked No.192 in the world - Chinese teenager Xinyun Han - and is hopeful a week of intense practice in Melbourne has her back on track after a series of demoralising defeats in Perth and Sydney.

"I'm hitting the ball really well. I'm moving pretty well too," Stosur said.

"Obviously a match is different. You get out there and the nerves set in.

"But out on the practice court I'm feeling pretty good.

"There is probably a little more expectation than previous years, but nothing is going to be greater than my own expectation of what I want to try and achieve out there.

"I just want to go out and win as many matches as I can. If that ends up being somewhere in the second week, then I'll be very happy with that."

Alicia Molik plays Frenchwoman Julie Coin, Casey Dellacqua faces Belarussian Anastasiya Yakimova and Jarmila Groth is up against Swede Sofia Arvidsson.

Carsten Ball has a tough first-round assignment against Spanish ninth seed Fernando Verdasco, while fellow Australian wildcard Marinko Matosevic plays Swiss Marco Chiudinelli.