No, it's not all about the Australian Open, according to Sydney International finalist Chris Guccione.

With the tournaments played across the country this week sometimes considered little more than warm-ups for the season opening grand slam, Guccione didn't even want to know who he'd drawn on Friday to play in the first round at Melbourne Park next week.

Even as his odds for grand slam glory shrank from 1000:1 at the beginning of this week to level pegging with Richard Gasquet and James Blake at 100:1 by Friday, Guccione said his start to 2008 had already been "perfect".

"I haven't seen the (Open) draw and I'd prefer not to know," Guccione told reporters after his 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 6-4 semi-final victory over Radek Stepanek on Friday.

"(I'm) just trying to focus on the next match," he added.

That will be his second ever ATP tour final on Saturday and his first meeting with Russian world No.35 Dmitry Tursunov, who beat veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-3 7-6 (7-4) in Friday's second semi-final.

Tournament organisers will also be breathing a sigh of relief with a local presence offsetting the total absence of seeded players in the Sydney final for the first time since 2000.

Guccione has answered high-profile critic John Newcombe, knocked off big-guns Lleyton Hewitt and Tomas Berdych and, perhaps most importantly, shot back into the top 100 this week, enough to have anyone taking it one week at a time.

"It's the perfect start to the year really - confidence beating those top players and match practice before the Aussie Open," he said.

"And also the ranking points to get myself in the top 100 again.

"It just gives you more opportunity to get into the main draw of bigger tournaments."

The 22-year-old's only other final appearance was in Adelaide last year, where he lost to Serb Novak Djokovic, and he has replicated that early season burst in 2008.

But he said this time he knows what to do next.

"I've always had good wins against top players but (have been) unable to keep it up," he said.

"When I beat Ferrero for the first time (in Sydney in 2004) I think it dragged on a little bit with the media and (I) was just not focused enough for the next match."

Guccione admitted he was not at his best on Friday as the net tape helped him take the first set tiebreaker and he left it until match point to break Stepanek's serve.

"I felt I struggled a little bit today compared to the way I played against Berdych on the return and baseline game," he said.

"I hung in there with my serve and took the opportunity at the end when it came."

That opportunity was the Czech's only double fault, gifting match point to Guccione who converted when Stepanek hit the Australian's return long.

For the record, Guccione drew Korean world No.46 Hyung-Taik Lee in the first round of the Open.

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