Richard will kick off the New Year at the Next Generation Adelaide International in Australia.

With a Sunday start, Adelaide is the first tournament to try out the new round robin system.

Adelaide is a 32-man draw, so as the ATP explains, will begin with a main draw elimination round.

"A 32-player hybrid format consisting of a 16-player “Main Draw Elimination Round” with the 8 winners joining 16 other players to make up the 8 groups of 3 players. Each player will then play two guaranteed matches in the round robin stage. The winner from each group will advance to the final rounds (quarterfinals), and then will play out the tournament per a traditional elimination format."