Photo: Thomas Guenther
Marcos will begin his Brisbane International campaign on Tuesday afternoon when he faces Frenchman Florent Serra in the first round of the ATP World Tour 250 hard court tournament.
Marcos takes a 1-0 career lead over Serra into the match, having beaten the Bordeaux native in straight sets in Zagreb in 2007. World No. 69 Serra compiled a 19-27 match record last season, highlighted by a semi-final showing in Casablanca and a run to the third round of the Australian Open.
After playing in Abu Dhabi, Marcos arrived in Brisbane on Sunday evening. Around practice on Monday, he took time to talk to the Australian media.
“Every time I come to Australia the crowd is really nice to me so I’m happy I’m back and I’m looking forward to spending some time on court,” said Marcos.
“I worked really hard on my fitness, every part of my fitness. We worked on my endurance, strength, speed and power for the first month, then the last two weeks I worked a lot on the court on my serve. I think I improved a bit. I’m feeling fit and well.
“Last year was a very good year for me. The goal was to play a lot of matches against Top 10 players and I played a few of those. I won some and it was a great year. Now I’m No. 20 in the world and I’m looking to go a bit further.”
Watch Marcos’ Press Conference
The match is scheduled for third on Pat Rafter Arena on Tuesday, with play beginning at 10:30am local time (00:30am GMT, 2:30am Cyprus, 7:30pm -1 day ET). Check out the full order of play here.
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Go, Marcos!
