World No.17 Kei Nishikori on Friday confirmed his addition to a strong field for January’s Kooyong Classic tennis event in Melbourne.

In the Australian Open lead-up tournament, the Japanese player will join defending champion Lleyton Hewitt, world top-10 players Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, Czech Tomas Berdych and Frenchman Richard Gasquet and rising star Grigor Dimitrov, with two players yet to be announced.

Nishikori, forced to withdraw from the this year’s Classic with a knee injury, said he was delighted to return to Melbourne to contest the historic event from January 8-11.

“I’m really looking forward to playing the AAMI Classic,” said the 23-year-old. “I only played one match last year against (Paul Henri) Mathieu before I had to pull out injured, but I saw the magnificent venue at Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club and I can’t wait to get there to play again.”

After recovering from the early-season injury, Nishikori won his third ATP World Tour title in February at Memphis, recorded his fourth win over a top-five opponent in May, defeating Roger Federer in three sets in Madrid to reach the quarter-finals and he achieved a career-high world ranking of No.11 after making the French Open fourth round.

Tournament Director Brian Cooney welcomed Nishikori’s return to Kooyong.

“I’m delighted that Kei has chosen to play at the AAMI Classic,” said Cooney. “Kei is a rising star in men’s tennis – one of the standout members of ‘Generation Next’ – and he has a huge fan base here in Australia.”

Nishikori said he was excited to challenge for the title.

“Hopefully, I can get my name on the amazing honour roll they have there,” he said, in reference to legendary winners including Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, Federer, Andy Roddick, Hewitt and Pat Cash.