11 January 2015 | Tennis Queensland

Twenty-five year-old John Millman is among seven locals to receive wildcards into the Australian Open.

After time off with injury last year he said he was looking forward to starting the year by playing in Australia and was “confident in my game and more and more confident in my body.”

Millman began the year in front of a home crowd at the Brisbane International, progressing to the second round before bowing out against no. 1 seed Roger Federer in a thrilling three set match.

The world No.153 will be joined by compatriots James Duckworth, Luke Saville, Thanasis Kokkinakis, Olivia Rogowska, Arina Rodionova and Storm Sanders in the Australian Open main draw.

They are joined by fellow Australians Jordan Thompson and Daria Gavrilova, winners of the Australian Open play-off last month.

France’s Lucas Pouille and Oceane Dodin have been awarded wildcards for the season-opening grand slam thanks to a reciprocal agreement between Tennis Australia and the French Tennis Federation.

They join Ze Zhang from China and Taiwan’s Kai-Chen Chang who won their place in the main draw at the Asia-Pacific wildcard play-off in Shenzhen late last year.