Jannik Sinner made a rapid start to his Australian Open title pursuit with a 67-minute win over Hugo Gaston.
Gaston did, however, retire early during their round one match at Rod Laver Arena, when Sinner was winning 6-2, 6-1.
The two-time Australian Open defending champion will now take on James Duckworth in round two in his pursuit of a fifth Grand Slam title.
But while Sinner was happy with his Australian Open display against Gaston, he did admit one key area of his game still has room for improvement.
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Jannik Sinner admits his serve still needs to improve
When speaking to the press after the win, the ATP number two was tasked with discussing the changes he’s made to his serve since the US Open.
Sinner commented: “Yeah, I mean, it’s not only US Open. I felt like the serve was and still is a shot where I need to improve.
“It’s the only shot we have where we can do everything by ourselves. There is a lot of room to improve.
“We changed a little bit the motion, the rhythm of the serve. Before it was a bit too fast in the beginning. Now it’s a bit slower.
“And the toss usually was a bit more in front a bit on the right. Now it’s a bit more back and over the head.
“At times I still lose it. It’s not a shot where I feel very safe with. But in the same time we are working on that.
“Yeah, it is one of if not the most important shots we have because it can give you so many great things. Yeah, so let’s see how I’m going to serve this season.”
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Jannik Sinner admission should worry the rest of the ATP Tour
Such an admission is really not what the rest of the players on the ATP Tour will be wanting to hear right now.
The idea that Sinner can get even better than he already is should be frightening, but perhaps more frightening is that he seemingly can indeed get better.
The Italian is only 24 years old, and still has so much more time to understand his own game and fine-tune the problems that let him down when it really matters, of which there aren’t many.
And concerning the shorter-term, he has just played his first competitive match of the new season, meaning any rust should fade away with more time on the Melbourne courts.
| Serve rating | % 1st serve | % 1st serve points won | % 2nd serve points won | % service games won | Avg. aces/match | Avg. double faults/match |
| 297.4 | 61.9% | 79.5% | 59.1% | 92.0% | 6.3 | 1.4 |
Intriguingly, the current ATP stats do not suggest a serve improvement is even needed, with Sinner topping the pile for serve leaders.
Although that is just one part of his remarkable efforts of late, as he also leads the way in the return leaders and under pressure leaders categories.
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