When players showed anger on court it made matches more entertaining to watch, he said.

The 19-year-old was at the launch of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Tuesday morning, where organisers announced that retiring Australian tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt would be awarded a wildcard entry to the tournament and that prizemoney would increase by 10 per cent to $44 million.

The Open aims to expand its presence in 2016, holding a free festival at Birrarung Marr, behind Federation Square.

Kokkinakis was inadvertently drawn into a minor tennis scandal earlier this year, when fellow Australian player and long-time friend Kyrgios sledged opponent Stan Wawrinka, making a sexually suggestive remark about  Kokkinakis and Wawrinka's partner Donna Vekic.

Asked whether the attention paid to the behaviour of players was taking away from young Australians' achievements, Kokkinakis said tennis should be entertaining.

"People want to watch you, and I don't think they mind that stuff to be honest, even though it makes headlines it makes it fun for the fans to watch," he said.

"I think it doesn't really hurt the game too much."

Kyrgios was in trouble again recently for swearing in China and hitting a ball into the roof of a Japanese stadium, but Kokkinakis said when they spoke it was just to catch up, not to discuss his friend's code violations.

"I've been watching him the last couple of matches and he seems to be playing well, and he's probably a bit more switched on than I've seen him before, which is good," he said.

"He's not just going to change completely and he's not going to just not get frustrated, so I think he's toning it down a little bit.

"The fans love watching him play, if he yells, if he breaks racquets, the fans love watching that so I think it's good for the game."

In the style of the recent grand final festival, held in the gardens outside the MCG this year, the Australian Open's latest add-on will offer the public a chance to have a hit of tennis and will show matches on the big screen.

The cost will be covered by Tennis Australia and event sponsors, Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said.

Tiley made it clear he was not impressed by Kyrgios' recent violations, but said he had seen improvements.

"We all want to have a player up there like Nick that we're proud of, and we'll get there."

Rafael Nadal and Rod Laver were guests on Tuesday at the "symbolic" Shanghai launch of the Open,  held simultaneously with the function in Melbourne.

Nadal plans to tread a familiar path to next year's Australian Open, while carrying renewed optimism that a return to past glories is within closer reach.

The 14-time major winner, who has slipped to No.7 in the world rankings after failing to win a grand slam title this season for the first time in a decade, reached the Japan Open final last week to continue what has been a more positive finish to a difficult year.

The Spaniard, who received a first-round bye at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, claims to be injury-free despite requiring treatment on a foot complaint during his finals loss to top seed Novak Djokovic in Tokyo. . 
 
"I will have probably the same schedule as every year before the tournament starts, and obviously the Australian Open is the first very big event of the year and I want to be ready for it again," said Nadal, the 2009 champion at Melbourne Park.

"During this season I have been improving in terms of level of tennis - it's true that sometimes the results have been not the ones that I wanted, but I had a very tough first six months of the year and I feel that this second part of the year I am playing better, I am enjoying more the tennis in general, I have the control of my emotions again and that is so important for me, and I am working so hard.

"So I really believe that I am working the right way to try to start the next year [in] good shape."