Women's top seed Lindsay Davenport opens proceedings at the Australian Tennis Open in Melbourne this afternoon.
Despite several big name stars pulling out of the tournament there are still plenty of drawcards, with a few playing on the Rod Laver Arena centre court on day one.
Lindsay Davenport is first upwith fourth seed Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams playing later on.
Serena Williams and Andy Roddick feature in the first night session.
Roddick is backing himself to make a winning start to the new season, after a disappointing year last year, failing to make it through to the second round of the US Open, and then injuring his back.
Andy Roddick says compared to this time last year, he is in great shape, and is fully prepared for the Open which he begins by playing Michael Lammer from Switzerland.
Roddick says he is more excited about the start of 2006 than any other season he has played, and he has had more down time in the off-season, working a lot on his game over the break.
Not so optimistic is Kim Clijsters, who will need painkillers to play after problems with her injured hip.
The Belgian is still hoping to play but faces a race against time to get ready for her opening match on Tuesday.
Tournament organisers will no doubt be sweating on Clijsters' fitness after already losing the likes of Marat Safin, Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal to injury.
The Open is shaping as a survival of the fittest, with most of the world's top players still nursing injuries left from last year.
That has prompted calls to move the tournament from its traditional January slot to March.
