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Italian Sinner leads field at Open warm-up at Kooyong

Jannik Sinner will be in Melbourne in January to contest the Australian Open warmup Kooyong Classic. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)

World No.4 Jannik Sinner will use the Kooyong Classic to fine-tune his preparations for the Australian Open in January.

The 22-year-old Italian headlines the field for the exhibition tournament, held at the former home of the Open from January 10-12.

Sinner, who reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon this year, has an Australian link - he is mentored by master coach Darren Cahill.

The Italian reached the round of 16 at Melbourne Park this year before losing to eventual finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas. He was also beaten by the Greek in the quarter-finals in 2022.

Exciting young Dane Holger Rune, currently ranked sixth in the world after reaching a career-high fourth in August, has also signed on for the Kooyong warm-up.

Rune, 20, was a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year, as well as reaching the fourth round at Melbourne Park, and has recently taken on Boris Becker as his coach.

Former US Open champion Dominic Thiem, who is on the comeback trail after a lengthy spell out with injury, and consistent grand slam performer Karen Khachanov, of Russia, will be part of the field. 

Zhizhen Zhang, the first Chinese man to be ranked inside the top 100 and a recent gold medallist at his home Asian Games, has also committed to play at Kooyong, which ends two days before the Open gets underway on January 14.

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