An injury-free Marinko Matosevic says he's a better tennis player than when he was ranked No.39 in the world less than three years ago.
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The 30-year-old Victorian will use this week's Canberra International as a springboard to hitting the ground running ahead of next year's Australian Open.
Matosevic starts his singles campaign in the $50,000 ATP Challenger event at the Canberra Tennis Centre against Jordan Thompson on Tuesday.
He was surprisingly knocked out of the doubles on Monday when he and partner Robin Stanek lost 6-7 (4), 6-4, (5-10) to Canberra's James Frawley and Harry Bouchier in the first round.
Matosevic was Australia's top-ranked singles player at the end of 2012 on the way to a career-high ranking of 39th in the world on February 25, 2013.
But he has endured a tough season with his ranking plummeting to No.289 in the world.
"Definitely I feel I'm a better tennis player than when I got to No.39 in the world, it's just about staying healthy," Matosevic said.
"I had a month-long virus in March, then a stress fracture in my foot then sprained my back and had a locked up fascia joint.
"I played through a lot of those injuries because I was main draw at the French Open and Wimbledon and I wasn't going to pull out of those."
Matosevic is prepared to play in the wildcard playoff for the Australian Open after losing to Andy Murray in the second round this year.
He played in the qualifiers at the ATP Challenger event in Traralgon last week before going down to Ben Mitchell in the first round.
Matosevic went on to win the doubles with Dayne Kelly and only arrived in Canberra at lunchtime on Monday when he met Stanek for the first time.
They lost the first set in a tie-break and were down 4-0 in the second before they won six straight games to force the match into a super tie-breaker.
Frawley and Bourchier, who had a wildcard into the tournament, held their nerve to progress to the second round.
"It got a little bit tight in the second set, but it was awesome to get the win in the super tie-breaker," Frawley said.
"I haven't been playing too much recently because I've been at uni, but I played doubles with Nick Kyrgios in Malaysia and the other day with Alison Bai in the Win a Wildcard doubles."
Men's top seed John Millman is first up on centre court on Tuesday when he takes on Blake Mott at 10am.
