Melbourne  - The pressure has been miraculously reduced for Roger Federer as the Swiss prepares to start his Australian Open with a Monday night opening match against Italian Andreas Seppi.

With his title-grabbing juggernaut slowed from 2008, the world number two begins the bid for a fourth Melbourne Park title in six years in a remarkably relaxed state of mind.

"It's a bit nicer not having to defend almost every week I play," the second seed said on Sunday before heading out the the practise courts. "I guess that's the nice part about it.

"I only have four titles to defend this year. It's still quite a lot, but compared to maybe 10 or 12 a few years ago, that takes the pressure off a little bit and actually increases the pressure on the other guys.

"Obviously that's kind of nice for a change. You enter a tournament and you don't think about that that much. You can actually more concentrate on playing than having to defend points."

While he cannot be pleased that his former unquestioned dominance has been eroded - the days of 11 titles in 2005, a dozen in 2008 and eight in 2007 are now in the past - the 27-year-old is not stressing after winning only one major (US Open) last season along with minor events in Estoril, Basel and Halle.

He still stands just one trophy away from levelling on the all-time best of 14 Grand Slams owned by Pete Sampras.

And the calm eye of the storm is leaving nothing to chance at this edition in Australia.

"The approach has always been pretty much the same, I haven't changed my schedule around a whole lot. "But I always make sure I have a good schedule in terms that I have enough rest, enough practise as well. That's something I've always kept the same."

A new generation of rivals to supplement Rafael Nadal do not overly worry the big man either.

"I know a lot of people are always saying this seems like a tough generation right now with Murray, Djokovic, Rafa and everything," said Federer.

"I don't think it's that much stronger than when I came up. We had Agassi, Roddick, Hewitt, Safin, Ferrero, Nalbandian, all these other guys.

"I thought we've had very high quality tennis since a long time now. It's not just now that we have really four great players again. I think they were there before, but there were just different names. "It's going to be an interesting year."

Federer's match will close a blockbuster opening day in Melbourne Park, which begins in the morning session with seventh seed Andy Roddick facing Swedish qualifier Bjorn Rehnquist.

Women's top seed Jelena Jankovic begins her hunt for a first career Grand Slam title facing Austrian Yvonne Meusburger while men's holder Novak Djokovic plays Italy's Andrea Stoppini. dpa