Geelong coach Matt Hicks is chasing his fourth victory in the Labour Day long weekend tournament, which starts tomorrow and wraps up on Monday.

The 31-year-old meets Warrnambool’s Daniel Carlsson first-up but has potentially tricky showdowns against an unheralded trio in the back of his mind.

“I had a look at the players. The most dangerous players, they’re all unseeded,” Hicks said.

“You’ve got Marvin Barker from Melbourne, Andrew McLean from South Yarra and I’m good mates with Matt Moloney from Warrnambool.

“They’re the main three that have a show at it.”

Hicks earned the top seeding thanks to winning a tournament at Wodonga in January, which gave his Tennis Victoria points tally a healthy boost.

He defeated Moloney in the men’s singles final at the Victorian inter-regional championships at Creswick two weeks earlier.

“If I didn’t play that (Wodonga) tournament, I would’ve been unseeded. It was a really big tournament worth a lot of points,” he said.

He said he was the fittest he’d been in years, despite playing in fewer competitions than he had in years past.

“I still feel fit, the fittest in a lot of years just with all the coaching I’m doing. I’m still hitting a very good ball,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on the grass again . . . being a country boy I’ve always played my best tennis on grass.”

Hicks is one of more than 50 Geelong players who are bound for Warrnambool this weekend.

“We love coming down there for the weekend. It’s just a good, fun, social tournament,” he said.

“These days I’m doing heaps of coaching in Geelong. It’s more about I want to show the juniors I can still play and how to behave on court.”

The men’s singles draw features 11 Warrnambool players, headlined by Moloney, fifth-seed Jake Dunn, sixth-seed Sam Wilde and seventh-seed Toby Timms.

Carlsson, Josh Parsons, James Tobin, Josh Hay, Curtis Young, Brodie Young and Dominic Tobin are also hoping for home-court success.

Melbourne’s Joanna Karai-tiana, ranked 65th in Australia, is the top women’s seed in a field without Warrnambool representatives.

Tournament director Don Higgins said about 760 players will take to the Pertobe Road courts throughout the three days.

There are open, veterans, A, B C, D and junior grades, with finals on Monday.

“We had to shut entries off early because of the numbers we got,” Higgins said.