Kyrgios will play his first match of the year at the Sydney International when he lines up against 2013 Wimbledon semi-finalist Jerzy Janowicz, who is riding high after leading Poland to their first Hopman Cup title in Perth last week.

Kyrgios' Australian Open preparations were stalled by a back injury, forcing the teenager to withdraw from his Hopman Cup duties and focus on playing in Sydney.

The former Daramalan College student has been plagued by injuries in his short career, including bone stress in his arm last year following his remarkable triumph against then-world No.1 Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon.

But Larkham insists the rising star can cope with the increased scrutiny as he steps into the limelight.

"We've been building him up every day, his back is good and he's itching to go and get competing," Larkham said.

"We've followed the practice plan, he's done all the rehab ... but he's going to face some serves [from Janowicz] over 200 kilometres per hour and you're never sure how that will go.

"But we're pretty confident that it's ready to go, the intensity has gone up and everything is fine."

Kyrgios is the poster boy of the tournament in Sydney and has taken on extra off-court work to promote the event.

But the pressure of being Australia's No.1 player has failed to knock Kyrgios' confidence as he prepares for his last Grand Slam tournament as a teenager.

In the past two years Kyrgios has risen almost 800 places in the world rankings and now sits at No.50, passing Lleyton Hewitt as Australia's highest-ranked player.

Kyrgios has also overtaken Bernard Tomic, who is also playing in Sydney, as the great hope to ending Australia's Grand Slam drought.

"He's not fazed at all, it doesn't worry him," Larkham said.

"He knows he's under a bit of pressure and he's had to do a few extra things, but it really doesn't faze him with [the] attention.

"He's just concentrating on what he has to do and playing well. To be honest, I don't think he feels he's under any great pressure. That's the right attitude to have."

Janowicz is the world No.42, but was ranked as high as 14 in 2013.

But while Janowicz tasted success at the Hopman Cup, Kyrgios has been limited in his training and has only played a handful of matches since the Malaysian Open in September.

"We lost a week of training and that's not ideal. We lost some hard training and some matches, but getting these matches in Sydney is huge," Larkham said.

"The main goal is the Australian Open ... maybe the injury will affect him a bit here because he hasn't played a match. But I don't think it will affect the Australian Open.

"Nick loves competing, he prefers taking someone on rather than training so this is his chance to play."