The players stand on a balcony overlooking the grounds of the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, former home of the Australian Open. Left to right: David Nalbandian, Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez, Marat Safin, Andy Murray, Nikolay Davydenko, Marcos Baghdatis, Ivan Ljubicic.                                                                                                            © William West/AFP Getty

MELBOURNE, Australia—At the press conference to introduce the field for this week’s AAMI Classic exhibition at the fabled Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne, it came as no surprise to see who made the best entrance – even though it was momentarily no entrance at all.

The players walked in one by one to sit in eight chairs lined up at the front of the assembled media, and all went fine until it was time for No. 7 – you guessed it – Marat Safin. There a little scrambling by organizers to find the unpredictable Russian but he eventually trotted after a short delay out and took his place.

Next was Marcos Baghdatis, filling in for the ill Roger Federer. He was the only competitor to merit a rousing cheer, thanks to the still-fresh memory of his entertaining run to the 2006 Australian Open final.

Roddick and Davydenko carried on an animated conversation, frequently punctuated with hearty laughter and Safin and Baghdatis did a little kibitzing later.

The players were quizzed about the new Plexicushion courts and Safin added more laughs with a decidedly non-technical answer. “I think it’s a little different because we’re used to playing on green,” he said. “The first impression was a little bit not normal. But you can get used to it. But it’s still a little bit better with the green – in my opinion.”

Gonzalez smiled and said to Safin, “it’s a different color, but it’s just a color.”

He added, “The court is much slower than last year but I think it’s better for my game and the South Americans.”

“I feel fit again, healthy again,” said David Nalbandian, echoed by Ivan Ljubicic and Andy Murray.

Murray, who is coming off a title run in Doha, said, “Obviously, I played well in Doha. It’s been nice with my new team around me. I’ve got a couple of fitness trainers here, a coach, a physio, so I’m looking forward to it [the Australian Open].”

Heat is expected to be a major factor at Melbourne during the middle of the week as Kooyong and qualifying for the Australian Open get underway. "We always expect it to be hot over here,” Murray said about the extreme heat that virtually singes the skin on contact. “I trained for four weeks in Florida before going back home for Christmas, so I tried to get in some training in the heat. But I’ve been doing that Bikram yoga, which is in a 42-degree room, so hopefully I’ll be used to it.”

Murray also said his fitness has improved. “I had pretty much five weeks of training so I feel physically much stronger."
Marcos Baghdatis had a less convincing performance at his first event of the year, losing in the first round of Chennai. But was quick ot accentuate the positive. “I prepared the season very well physically," he said. "So I didn’t play so well in Chennai last week -- but I played good in doubles.”

That brought a round of laughter from his fellow players – a subtle reminder that doubles remains a perennial weak sister to singles.

In general, the players seemed remarkably healthy – except of course for absentees Federer and Haas. Even Safin, who couldn’t resist a final little gibe at the surface, said, “My knee doesn’t hurt. I have been working really hard in Spain for a month and a half and I came out here early – got used to the color.”

But the condition of the player who was originally supposed to be Kooyong's star attraction weighed most heavily on the minds of reporters. Federer appears to have a bad stomach virus and had to spend the night in hospital last Saturday, two days after his arrival in Melbourne. Scuttlebutt had his girlfriend Mirka saying that it was quite serious.

His fellow players aren't fretting. “I can safely say that none of us up here are worried about Roger’s preparation for the Australian Open. I don’t think we’re worried for him. I think I’ll sleep okay tonight," joked Roddick.

Quizzed further about how not playing Kooyong might affect Federer, Roddick conceded, “it’s certainly not going to help, but if there’s anybody who can probably take care of himself and play his way into form, it’s probably Roger.”

The Kooyong event may not have seen the last of Federer for 2008. Event director Colin Stubs claimed he had only communicated with Federer through his management, saying. “I’ve had basically little contact, I’m going to have a little more as the week goes on because there’s a suggestion that he might like to come out and play a match outside the format, just to get a match under his belt if he’s physically able to do so.”

Federer’s No. 1 beef with the current men’s tennis calendar is that it the Australian Open comes to early after the end-of-year-break. One suspects that, in his current condition, that could be playing on his mind a little bit.

A reminder of the more shadowy issues which plagued the game in the second half of last year came when Ljubicic, president of the ATP Player’s Council, was asked about Italians Alessio di Mauro, Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali recently being fined and suspended for betting on tennis. “I don’t think they are supposed to be suspended,” Ljubicic said. “I think they could get a fine because what they did was really stupid. That’s it. To be suspended nine months [as di Mauro was] because you put a few Euros on a match on the other side of the world was maybe a little bit too aggressive. But those are the rules.

“Maybe it’s more to show the young players that they have to follow the rules, and show all other players that there are rules that need to be followed.”

On on a related note, Stubs was asked if he had any reservations about including Davydenko in the field as a substitute for Haas. Davydenko is currently under investigation by the ATP, prompted by unusual betting patterns during his second-round match in Sopot last summer.

“I thought about it,” Stubs said. “But I took the view that… we’re dealing with allegations here and I reminded myself that in this society we’re innocent until proven guilty. I also noted that he was still on the circuit and seemed to be playing good tennis. He must have been subject to scrutiny from the media at these events and I concluded that he was pretty well able to handle himself. So, I picked up the phone.

“At the time, when I was putting the field together, the ATP had not gotten as far along in the investigation as they are now. It was a consideration at that point, it’s not now.”