Near-exhausted Czech Tomas Machac is banking on the buzz of the Australian Open aiding his recovery from a gruelling Adelaide International triumph.
Machac prevailed in a hard-fought final against Frenchman Ugo Humbert on Saturday, winning 6-4 6-7 (2-7) 6-2 to claim his second ATP title.
The world No.35 has limited time to prepare for a testing first-round Open clash with world No.45 Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday morning.
"When you finish a tournament, you will always be tired, so for sure I will be a little bit tired," Machach said.
"But I have two days to recover. And when I arrive to Melbourne, there will be again new energy, new motivation.
"It's not an easy draw. But for me, I didn't arrive to Australia to search for easy draw.
"Everything that I will play in Melbourne is something that I'm very glad that after the injury, I can be in this moment."
Machac, who was eighth seed in Adelaide, battled a nagging right knee injury that curtailed his output last year.
But the 25-year-old felt he had overcome the ailment, evidenced by his decisive third set against a flagging Frenchman.
"I managed to keep the level of the tennis pretty high from the beginning of the third set, so that was a great key in the game," he said.
"I started to play even a little bit more aggressive ... it was a very difficult match."
The unseeded Humbert only secured his spot in the final by winning a semi-final late on Thursday night.
"At the end, it was not easy," Humbert said.
"Maybe I was not really fresh because last night I finished my match late.
"I felt when we started the third, I have a little bit less energy - but he didn't give me anything, so congratulations to him."
Humbert also faces a challenging first-round encounter in Melbourne on Tuesday morning, against eighth-seeded American Ben Shelton.
"I need to do a good recovery to be ready and fresh against Ben," he said.
"He has a really big serve ... amazing player, super-aggressive from the baseline and he tries to go a lot to the net.
"It's going to be a great battle between two lefties."
