Lleyton Hewitt relishing 17th Australian Open

Lleyton Hewitt has said that he is confident ahead of the 17th consecutive appearance at his home Grand Slam.

The 31-year-old faces eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic in the first round of the Australian Open.

The Australian told Sky Sports News: "I don't care. I'll knock him off, try to take his spot in the draw. I look forward to the challenge.

"The last couple matches I've hit the ball as well as I can remember. I feel confident with where my game is at the moment. There's still a couple things I've got to try to take care of when I'm on the match court.

"But all in all, when my moving comes together and I'm serving well, my returns and obviously passing shots and counter-punching has been pretty good anyways."

Hewitt comes in to his 55th Grand Slam having won the Kooyong Classic title last weekend.