ATP Tour
Sinner details the one shot he ‘needs to improve’ amid Australian Open campaign
World No. 2 believes his serve still holds untapped potential
January 20, 2026
Phil Walter/Getty Images
Jannik Sinner is the two-time defending champion at the Australian Open.
By Jerome Coombe
Even when you are the No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Rankings and a two-time defending Australian Open champion, there is always room for improvement. Just ask Jannik Sinner.
The 24-year-old advanced to the second round at Melbourne Park on Tuesday when Hugo Gaston retired with Sinner leading 6-2, 6-1 after 68 minutes. Following the match, Sinner offered insight into the technical tweaks he has been making to his serve toward the end of last season and throughout the offseason. It’s a stroke he believes still holds untapped potential.
“It’s not only [since] the US Open,” Sinner said when asked about the timestamp of the service-motion changes. “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. 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.”
Those refinements come despite Sinner finishing 2025 as the Serve Leader, according to Infosys ATP Stats, which examines a player’s serving dominance through metrics such as first-serve points won, serve effectiveness and aces. It’s an area of strength that underpinned his six-title season, highlighted by his second consecutive Nitto ATP Finals crown.
Yet for the Italian, marginal gains on serve could prove decisive as he looks to sustain his dominance and pursue the longer-term objective of reclaiming the World No. 1 position from rival Carlos Alcaraz.
“At times I still lose it [the toss]. It’s not a shot where I feel very safe,” Sinner continued. “But at the same time we are working on that. It is one of if not the most important shots we have because it can give you so many great things. So let’s see how I’m going to serve this season.”
Beyond the technical elements, Sinner also continues to invest in the mental side of his game, maintaining a close working relationship with renowned mental coach Dr. Riccardo Ceccarelli. They have built a consistent dialogue aimed at fine-tuning Sinner’s mindset across different phases of the season.
“We are in contact trying to understand and also working on a couple of things,” Sinner said of Ceccarelli. “I have my home kit with me, so whenever I need to work on, whenever I feel like, I can work with that.
“It goes a bit by period: How I feel also and what mental statement I am in. For sure there is still some room to improve. I’ve been in contact with him consistently. It’s good to have a stable person and he understands me now also a little bit better. By time we understand each other better. I understand his work ethic. We try to work on that.”
Sinner is aiming to become just the second man in the Open Era to win three consecutive Australian Open titles, following Novak Djokovic, who achieved the feat in 2011–13 and again from 2019–21. Next up for the Italian in Melbourne is Australian wild card James Duckworth, whom Sinner leads 2-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
