The Griffith based coach who won the title in 2002 and is ranked 58th in Australia, said while he hasn’t played in a tournament such as the Open for over a year, the fact he

constantly plays when travelling away with junior players does count for something.

“I haven’t really played in a tournament since last April, but I do play when I go away with the kids,” Letcher said.

“Danny is still the one to beat, my ranking is still up there, it’s actually probably a lot higher than it should be given I haven’t been to many tournaments.

“But hopefully if I can play my way into the tournament I can be dangerous.”

However, the man that will be standing in his way is Danny Dossetor, who has made the MIA Open his own over the last four years, a fact he wasn’t aware of until recently.

The left-hander is modest about his achievements but said he would like to make it five from five, but insisted he won’t have it all his own way.

“I’ve been hitting it alright at the moment, but four years has gone by so quickly I didn’t know they were in a row until somebody told me recently,” Dossetor said.

“Chris Letcher is probably the favourite, we’ve been practising together recently and he’s been a good player for a long time.”

Despite the oddity of practicing with one of your main rivals, Dossetor said the training was in part for his tilt at the professional circuit, which starts in August when he travels to Ecuador.

In fact, Dossetor may have not been lining up in this years MIA Open if it wasn’t for tournaments in Iran and Kazakhstan falling through

“Basically I am trying to get a world ranking and go from there,” he said.

“I kind of had the chance to do it (turn pro) before college, but I wanted to get something to fall back on and I thought I could always do it after I graduated.”

The third and fourth seeds for the weekend are the ever-improving Mark Henderson and Michael Tymkin respectively, who will be doing their best to take the trophy back to Albury.

With 21 entires for the men’s singles event, this years event is the biggest in recent history, however the women’s event is shaping up to be just as strong.