Dudi Sela is back in the capital to defend his Canberra Challenger title but the Israeli veteran said there were no easy matches at one of the world's toughest challengers.
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Even after Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert withdrew on the eve of the tournament there were 11 players from the top 100 at the Lyneham Tennis Centre when the main draw kicked off on Monday.
Sela, 32, believes he's back to career-best form and the former world No.29 wants to claim his 23rd Challenger title in preparation of the Australian Open later this month.
"It's my second tournament of the year, I played well in Qatar last week but lost a tough first-round match against Fernando Verdasco," Sela said.
"I still feel like I'm playing some of the best tennis of my career and hopefully this week I can play more than one match and build some confidence before Melbourne.
"It will be tough, though, because every time before a grand slam all the players want to get some matches in, so there are guys here who have been top 20 in the world. It will be a difficult week."
Sela enters the Canberra tournament as the top seed on the back of his best season in eight years, which the world No.67 put down to learning from his experience.
"You learn more as you get older and the physios are much better than they were 10 years ago, you know how to practice and prepare better for matches, but mostly it's experience against younger players," Sela said.
Sela opens his defence against Hugo Grenier and could meet local hope Harry Bourchier in the third round after the 21-year-old qualified with a gutsy three-set win over Steven de Waard on Monday.
"I'm playing pretty well and feeling confident, hopefully I can get a few matches under my belt and I feel like in the first round I have a good shot against Zhe Li and then who knows from there," Bourchier said.
"There's definitely a lot of top guys playing due to the Australian Open, so it's good to play alongside so many different guys and I'm confident I can compete with them."
Andreas Seppi and Florian Mayer both survived opening-round scares after they each came back from a set down to progress on Monday.
CANBERRA CHALLENGER
Tuesday: Play begins 10am at Lyneham National Tennis Centre. Free entry.
