Sarkies told au.fourfourtwo.com today he was invited to the Aussie tennis star's house last night “for dinner” but he says they aren't a couple and in fact are just good friends.

“She's much older than me - We're not going out!,” the 21 year-old Olyroo said of blonde tennis star Molik who's five years his senior.

“She was on Nova [radio station] this morning and she mentioned I'd been over for dinner and they were like “so is this your new man?' and she was like, 'he's much younger than me!'

“I know Alicia through the VIS where she used to train and I used to train there too. And she'd been to a couple of Victory functions so that's how I know her," he added with a laugh.

Speculation about his love life aside, midfield ace Sarkies is focusing on his first game for Adelaide this Friday night against the Jets. “My fitness levels are petty high and my knee is about 95% so I'd expect to be on the bench and hopefully come on.”

The Olyroo says from what he's seen, this Adelaide side “is completely different to last year's side”.

“It's a young team but there's also a good blend of older players who we can learn off, like Paul Agostino. And Carl Veart is back just passing on his experience as a staff coach.”

But it's the Victory versus Adelaide matches that many fans are looking forward to seeing. “I'm pretty good mates with [Victory's] Adrian Leijer and we're on the phone each week saying how much we can't wait to play against each other in the league.”

However, Sarkies and his mate Leijer as well as United teammates Djite and Burns are all likely to miss most of the the opening two months of the A-League due to their commitments with the Olyroos as they enter the final stage of qualifiers for Beijing 2008.

Sarkies, who used to live in the hip Melbourne beachside suburb of Port Melbournre, now lives in Brighton in Adelaide. He says it's “much quieter than Melbourne and that's good because it's more relaxing.”