Tennis great Jim Courier has said it would be an \u201cabsolute shock\u201d if Jannik Sinner does not reach the final of the 2026 Australian Open after the Italian star\u2019s opening round win.<\/p>\n
In his first match of the 2026 season, Sinner<\/a> was leading 6-2, 6-1 against world No 93 Hugo Gaston when the Frenchman retired due to injury.<\/p>\n The world No 2 broke Gaston twice in each set and saved the three break points he faced, which were in the opening game of the match.<\/p>\n Sinner, the two-time reigning Australian Open<\/a> champion, is seeking his third title at Melbourne Park and fifth Grand Slam overall.<\/p>\n Courier \u2014 a four-time major champion and former world No 1 \u2014 reacted to Sinner\u2019s victory on Rod Laver Arena in his role as a TNT Sports expert.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to see him really struggling given how consistent he is in the past few seasons,\u201d said the American.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has automated all of his shots. He picks the right shots to play, he is unbelievable at defence, then he has an onslaught of shots to play offensively from everywhere you look.<\/p>\n \u201cThe serve has got significantly more consistent since the US Open since he changed his ball toss where he had a bad serving day and he\u2019s been a completely different server since that, which gives him a leg up in his rallies.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be an absolute shock if he doesn\u2019t make the final.\u201d<\/p>\n Tim Henman, a former world No 4, assessed that it is \u201cscary\u201d that Sinner has added more variety to his game.<\/p>\n \u201cJannik had all the answers,\u201d the Brit said. \u201cThis is another example of how Sinner has bought that variation to his game using the drop shots and setting up the break point opportunity.<\/p>\n Former world No 2 predicts dominance of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner will end in 2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Supercomputer predicts Australian Open winners: Alcaraz & Sabalenka backed as Raducanu given 0.1% chance<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a way that Sinner is able to come in, the first proper match of the year\u2026 he did play an exhibition against [Carlos] Alcaraz, but I wouldn\u2019t read anything into that. He did look so efficient, so impressive with his ball striking, his movement was good, but this is the real deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is him coming out, first match of the year as defending champion in a Grand Slam and he just hits the ground running.<\/p>\n \u201cEven in that first game, down love-40. I mean, it\u2019s not the ideal start, but then five points in a row. I think he hit three aces in that game, and he holds serve and he was just very much all business.<\/p>\n \u201cJannik\u2019s got so many strings to his bow, but then he adds those extra elements and you\u2019re thinking, \u2018I couldn\u2019t come up with a game plan in the first place. What do I do now that he can also serve body, that he can also chip and charge on occasion and throw in the drop shot?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI think Sinner\u2019s been very open about how he wants to bring the different variations to his game, he knows where his bread and butter is \u2014 that\u2019s the serve, the forehand and backhand, just blasting cross court, down the line.<\/p>\n \u201cBut now, when you see him playing with great touch, his technique looks more and more comfortable at the net, and it\u2019s scary that he\u2019s got those options to go to if he needs them.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the Australian Open on Eurosport, TNT Sports, HBO Max and discovery+<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Sinner will face 88th-ranked Australian wildcard James Duckworth in the second round.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: \u2018Mindblowing\u2019 Novak Djokovic\u2019s biggest Australian Open \u2018problem\u2019 revealed by John McEnroe<\/a> The post Australian Open: Jannik Sinner sparks ominous comments from experts after first round win<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tennis great Jim Courier has said it would be an \u201cabsolute shock\u201d if Jannik Sinner does not reach the final of the 2026 Australian Open after the Italian star\u2019s opening round win. In his first match of the 2026 season, Sinner was leading 6-2, 6-1 against world No 93 Hugo Gaston when the Frenchman retired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jim Courier and Tim Henman discuss Jannik Sinner\u2019s first round win<\/h2>\n
Australian Open News<\/h2>\n
What next for Jannik Sinner?<\/h2>\n
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