Believing success breeds success, Lleyton Hewitt will return to his two favourite stomping grounds to prepare for another tilt at grand slam glory this summer.

Encouraged - if not quite satisfied - by his near miss last campaign, Hewitt will again use his home cities of Adelaide and Sydney as launching pads for what the 24-year-old hopes will be a triumphant assault on the Australian Open.

Desperate to conjure a winning formula for his national championship, it is the first time in five years Hewitt is taking the same tournament route to Melbourne Park for back-to-back Opens.

Finding the key to peak form for the opening major of the new season is not a goal exclusive to Hewitt as the world's premier players converge on almost every Australian state and territory for a month-long feast of tennis action.

From the lead-up events in Adelaide, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra and Queensland's Gold Coast, the sport's cream will arrive for the Australian Open on January 16, each chasing grand slam riches and their share of more than $22 million in total prize money.

The show - officially dubbed The Road to the Open - gets underway with the Hopman Cup mixed teams event in Perth on New Year's Day.

While his leading rivals, including world No.1 Roger Federer and four-time Melbourne Park champion Andre Agassi, have again opted for the more proven Open build-up offered at the Kooyong Classic exhibition round-robin, Hewitt will continue running the gauntlet in Adelaide and Sydney.

Eight of the last 10 Australian Open men's winners have warmed up at Kooyong, where match practice is assured without the consuming pressures of competition play.

The combative Hewitt, though, has never fancied the idea of a "friendly" rehearsal with his major foes and it's easy to understand why he prefers tournament practice in Adelaide and Sydney, two cities close to his heart which have yielded the world No.4 a total of six titles from seven final appearances.

There could be no greater confidence booster for Hewitt than the lifting of an unprecedented fifth trophy in Sydney - where he will be seeded to lock horns with world No.2 Rafael Nadal - the week before the Open.

Hewitt's manager said on Thursday his charge was excited about his summer prospects, with the former US Open and Wimbledon champion seeing no reason to tinker with his playing schedule after falling to Marat Safin in the 2005 final at Melbourne Park.

"He's always pleased to go to Adelaide and to go to Sydney was a no-brainer - he's won the event four times," said Rob Aivatoglou.

"It's a formula that seems to be relatively successful so we didn't want to change too much.

"He's been working hard over the last six weeks and he's looking forward to the summer with much anticipation."

The Australian Open will be Hewitt's first major since he and wife Bec celebrated the birth of their first child, Mia, last month, and the former world No.1 is an inspired father.

"He's feeling good within himself, happy with family life and he and Bec are just really pleased to have a baby daughter," Aivatoglou said. "Everything's going really smoothly."

While Hewitt has chosen home sweet home for his Open finetuning, his sometime Davis Cup teammate Mark Philippoussis has accepted a wildcard into the Adelaide event but selected Auckland over Sydney for his last tournament before arriving in Melbourne.

Wayne Arthurs and Samantha Stosur commence their summer expeditions at the Hopman Cup, while Jelena Dokic will make her tournament comeback in Australia as an Australian again at the Canberra International from January 8-13.

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