Victorious Sinner sees ‘room to improve’ on serve

After defending his Australian Open title with a shortened first-round victory over Hugo Gaston, Jannik Sinner says he is still “feeling very safe” with the changes he has made to his serve.

When Frenchman Gaston abruptly retired, the world number two and two-time defending Australian Open champion was in complete control of the match.

Sinner believes there is still “a lot of room to improve” in terms of the percentage of service games won on the ATP Tour in 2025 (92%).

The 24-year-old Italian said: “I felt like the serve was and still is a shot where I need to improve.

We slightly altered the serve’s motion and the rhythm. It was initially a little too fast, but it’s now a little slower.

“I can’t stop losing it,” I said. We are working on that, but it’s not a shot that I feel very secure with.

Other than the match’s opening game, when he recovered from holding serve from 0-40, Gaston’s world number 93 rarely caused any issues for Sinner.

Sinner, who had won his first official game since winning the ATP Tour Finals in November, sent down three aces and an unreturnable serve to prevent that early break.

In the final match, he only lost nine more points after serving six aces overall and did not commit a double fault, finishing with a 64% first-serve percentage.

Sinner, a four-time Grand Slam champion, rallied from 2-2 in the opening set to a two-set lead with four straight breakups of serve.

Gaston, who had just finished the first set and had only a few seconds to go before getting treated, chose to end the game after losing the second set by holding serve at 5-0 down.

Gael Monfils’ 20th and final Australian Open appearance was marred by Dane Sweeny, an Australian qualifier.

The 39-year-old Frenchman, who will retire at the end of the season, struggled to move freely during the final period of the match but remained fit.

In the fourth set, Monfils went 4-1 up with a break, but Sweeny’s 7-5, 7-5, 6-4, 7-5 victory came only after Monfils’ opponent broke for a break.

After losing, Montfils told the audience, “Someway it’s the finish line.”

You guys have been incredible, thank you so much for this amazing ride.

“I have some great memories here, some significant battles, even one that lasted almost four hours.”

When Raphael Collignon retired injured in the fourth set, Lorenzo Musetti, the fifth seed of Italy, took the lead by two sets to one.

Ben Shelton, the eighth seed, defeated Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-3, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3, 7-6, 7-6.

The second round saw the passage of fellow American Taylor Fritz, who is the ninth seed, along with fellow 16th seed Jakub Mensik and former second-round runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas.