Borrowing a page from the playbook of four-time champion Andre Agassi, Alex de Minaur will spend Christmas Day pounding the pavement in pursuit of Australian Open glory.
Believing it's high time for he or Nick Kyrgios to bust the 47-year men's home title hoodoo in Melbourne, de Minaur planned to hit the practice courts four days out from Australia's United Cup opener against Great Britain on December 29-30.
Agassi famously used to run up and down the mountains outside Las Vegas on Christmas Day until he threw up.
But while that was in the cool of winter, de Minaur is upping the ante in the Sydney summer heat after flying in from his Spanish base of Alicante.
"Back on the courts I grew up on," said the world No.24.
"Every year I normally tend to spend Christmas in Oz. Normally, more often than that, on the tennis court just getting extra reps in and this year I will be again.
"As they say, no rest for the wicked. There's nothing better than getting some good old-fashioned gains."
Not content with last-16 appearances at Melbourne Park and Wimbledon this year, the 2020 US Open quarter-finalist craves a deep, deep run at his home slam.
The 23-year-old's victory over former world No.1 Daniil Medvedev at the Paris Masters in November was a timely confidence booster entering the Australian summer.
"I think I'm very close. My level's there. It's just a bit of self-belief that needs to happen for me to really cement myself right there," de Minaur said.
"So I'm going to do, as always, everything in my power and hopefully I can start off the year with a good run at the AO.
"I want to get high in the rankings. My whole career has been a lot of going step by step so the next step is to really push for the top 15, top 10.
"That's what my real goals are."
Kyrgios will launch Australia's United Cup campaign against British No.1 Cameron Norrie, the world No.14, in Sydney on Thursday night, before Zoe Hives plays Katie Swan in the first women's rubber.
The best-of-five-match tie resumes at Ken Rosewall Arena on Friday night, with Aussie women's No.1 Ajla Tomljanovic playing Harriet Dart and de Minaur facing world No.27 Dan Evans in a testing start to the new season.
If all locked up, a mixed doubles rubber will decide the tie.
Australia then take on the Rafael Nadal-led Spanish outfit on January 2-3.
That mouth-watering match-up will feature Kyrgios against Nadal, de Minaur against Pablo Carreno Busta and Tomljanovic against Paula Badosa.
