Melbourne, Australia, 12 January 2013 | AAP

Samantha Stosur concedes Lleyton Hewitt is right when he says she has put herself under too much pressure come the Australian Open.

Stosur, though, insists it is a mistake she won’t be repeating when she lines up as the Open’s ninth seed at Melbourne Park on Monday.

“Last year I think I did, definitely,” Stosur said on Saturday. “And I think I’ve learnt from that.

“This year I don’t feel like I’ve been in that same kind of space – I just haven’t played well enough.

“As each day goes on I feel I am playing better and better and now it’s trying to play the type of tennis I know I’m capable of.”

The world No.9 said she enjoyed the entire Australian summer of tennis but conceded there was a unique atmosphere at home.

“It’s different. Whether you want to call it extra pressure – it’s just different,” Stosur said.

“There is no better feeling that walking out onto these courts and having the crowd cheering for you.

“The biggest thing is me just wanting to play my best tennis in front of this home crowd.

“If I can handle that in my own head, I think it will be fine.”

Stosur meets Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen on Monday and says last year’s experience had taught that a first-round loss, however painful it is at the time, doesn’t mean the end of the world.

“It really sucked for a few days watching the rest of the tournament, but I bounced back and still had a pretty good year,” said the 2011 US Open champion.

“That’s one thing I can remember: If it doesn’t all go well here, it doesn’t mean that everything else is a disaster.

“I don’t want that to happen. I’m going to try my best to have a good result.”

On paper, Stosur should be too good for her 84th-ranked first-round foe.

But it was actually Chang who was a three-set winner in their only previous meeting, in Osaka last October.

“I would definitely like to try to rectify that result but she’s a tough player, a good competitor, runs a lot of balls down and hits the ball pretty flat and I’ll certainly have to be ready to go,” Stosur said.

Stosur is among nine Australians in action on Monday.

Wildcard playoff winner Bojana Bobusic has the toughest assignment against Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who is unbeaten this summer and won the Sydney International on Friday night with a 6-0 6-0 drubbing of Dominika Cibulkova.

Teenage wildcard Ashleigh Barty faces Cibulkova, the 15th seed, while Casey Dellacqua meets American Madison Keys, Sacha Jones faces Czech Kristyna Pliskova and Olivia Rogowska has a qualifier.

In the men’s event, Lleyton Hewitt – lining up for his record 17th consecutive Open – is up against Serbian eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic and will be full of confidence after his success at the Kooyong Classic.

Matthew Ebden plays Russian 23rd seed Mikhail Youzhny and wildcard John Millman squares off with Japan’s Tatsuma Ito.

Bernard Tomic, up against Argentine Leonardo Mayer, and Marinko Matosevic, who has a date with Croatian 12th seed Marin Cilic, play on Tuesday.