Henman is hoping for late season celebration

The feelgood factor is in any case not in short supply for Henman at present after winning late-season events in Brighton and Vienna, where he snapped a miserable sequence of seven straight losses in finals. Now the 26-year-old feels he has purged himself of crippling self-doubt.

"It was a really pleasing way to finish the year," he said. "Finishing in the top 10 after feeling really dissatisfied with 1999 was very positive.

"To get my first title on home soil was a great moment, and to win in Vienna after losing seven finals in a row was really pleasing. I knew I was going to win again but it was definitely frustrating waiting so long.

"Obviously I'd like the tournament wins to continue. Hopefully I can go all the way this week but I know it's going to be difficult."

The precise degree of difficulty depends to some extent on hometown hero Lleyton Hewitt. The 19-year-old has been recovering from a mystery respiratory problem which has plagued him for much of the last six months.

Uncertain of his precise fitness, he will wait until late this evening before choosing whether to accept a wildcard. Without him, Henman will be the No1 seed. With him, the tournament organisers will be delirously happy, and will no doubt relate several thousand times how Hewitt won the Adelaide tournament three years ago to become the lowest ranked player (550th) ever to win a title.

According to David Felgate, however, his charge is sanguine whether Hewitt plays or not. Both agree that improvements in his first and second serves have made the Briton a tougher opponent.

"I feel I'm a better player each year, especially the way my serve has come on during the past year," Henman said. "The serve is such an important part of the game today. The second serve is an area where I needed to improve and I have."

But if serving is significant to Henman's game, it is pivotal to Rusedski's.

The abject failure of the key weapon in his game was evident last year, much to Rusedski's bewilderment and despair.

He hopes Pat Cash, his latest coach, is the man to put things right. He flew out to Cash's training camp on the Gold Coast a week before Christmas and will not show his hand on the Adelaide practise courts until Sunday. More fervently than most, Rusedski is hoping for a happy new year.