MELBOURNE, Australia(AP) Roger Federer was toiling away across town at Kooyong, trying to win an exhibition tournament just two days from the start of the Australian Open, where he can tie Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slams.
Novak Djokovic, the defending champion at Melbourne Park, was on a plane from Sydney, where he lost to Finland's Jarkko Nieminen in a tournament semifinal the night before, blowing a chance to overtake Federer for the No. 2 ranking.
The guy they are both chasing, top-ranked Rafael Nadal, was taking it relatively easy Saturday, having a morning practice session with the other member of the Big Four of men's tennis, resurgent Andy Murray of Britain.
Rafa wondered if perhaps he wasn't taking it too easy.
I think I am OK,'' Nadal said, not sounding so sure.But I was for two months outside of competition, so maybe I need a little bit more matches to get the rhythm.''
Nadal was asked, for what he said was the 100th time in the past three months, whether being No. 1 has made any difference to him.
He ended Federer's 237-week reign at the top in early September after beating the Swiss star last year at the French Open and Wimbledon and later taking home the Beijing Olympics gold medal.
One number doesn't change anything,'' Nadal said.I was very happy to be No. 2. I am very happy, for sure, to be No. 1. Every year the season starts from zero for everybody.''
Not so much for Murray, at least in the expectations department. The Scotsman lost to Federer in the U.S. Open final, beat Nadal and Federer in an exhibition tournament two weeks ago in Abu Dhabi and defeated Andy Roddick and Federer in Doha, Qatar, last week.
The British public is excited, no doubt spurred on by London bookmakers who are offering better than even odds that Murray will win at least one Grand Slam title this year, and 5-to-1 that he'll be No. 1 by the end of 2009.
The odds of him winning all four Grand Slam tournaments this year have been cut from 500-to-1 down to 66-to-1, but Murray appears unfazed by the extra attention, saying he expected it.
For me it's obviously a good thing,'' Murray said.I think when you do become a contender for a Slam, obviously the seeding and stuff helps with your draws and whatnot.
``It gives you - it gives me anyway - that little bit of extra confidence. Obviously, the U.S. Open was a great run for me. I learned a lot ... hopefully I can keep it going here.''
Murray opens against Andrei Pavel of Romania in the same half of the draw as Nadal, who plays Christophe Rochus of Belgium in the first round. Djokovic is set to play a qualifier, while Federer's start of a very tough draw has him playing Andreas Seppi of Italy.
Federer then has possible matches against former No. 1 Carlos Moya in the second round, 2005 Australian Open champion Marat Safin in the third and Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth. He could play Djokovic in the semifinals, where the Serbian ended Federer's Melbourne Park run last year.
By the time Nadal and Murray were back at their hotels Saturday and Djokovic's plane had touched down, Federer was hoisting a trophy and giving a victory speech at Kooyong after beating Swiss countryman Wawrinka 6-1, 6-3 in only 57 minutes.
Later, he said he was as confident for this Grand Slam as he was for any other, despite losing his No. 1 ranking to Nadal and winning only one major last year. After all, he's won at least one Grand Slam in each of the last six years, pulling him ever closer to Sampras' 14.
``I don't remember entering any Slam thinking, 'Oh God, it's not going to work out for me.''' Federer said.
``I always feel at the end of the day, I'm going to play well in the Slam and it's going to take an incredible performance from somebody else to beat me. It's exactly the same again this year.''