Jannik Sinner arrives in Melbourne for title defense at Australian Open 2025; begins practicing with team

Jannik Sinner has not played on the 2025 ATP tour so far and will start his season directly at the Australian Open. The Italian is the defending champion in Melbourne and will be the top seed.

Jannik Sinner was by far the best player in tennis in 2024. He won eight titles on the tour, including two Grand Slams, and amassed nearly a 4,000-point lead at the top of the ATP rankings over World No. 2 Alexander Zverev. He will now have to defend those points, and the Australian Open will be the first big task for the Italian.

The 23-year-old decided against playing any warmup tournament ahead of the year's first Grand Slam and has arrived in Melbourne to prepare for his title defense. He was recently spotted practicing at the famous Rod Laver Arena alongside his coaches, Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi. The Italian also had a hitting session with young Australian Cruz Hewitt, son of two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt, on RLA.

Sinner with Vagnozzi and Cahill (Source: Getty)

Jannik Sinner was seeded fourth at the 2024 Australian Open and defeated Botic van de Zandschulp, Jesper de Jong, Sebastian Baez, Karen Khachanov, Andrey Rublev, and Novak Djokovic to reach his maiden Grand Slam final. He came up against former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev and overcame a two-set deficit to win the title 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.

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Novak Djokovic lays out plan to defeat Jannik Sinner & Carlos Alcaraz ahead of Australian Open 2025

Jannik Sinner (Source: Getty)

Novak Djokovic's 2024 season was below par by his standards. The Serb did not win a single title on the 2024 ATP tour, although he fulfilled his lifelong wish of winning an Olympic gold medal in Paris. In 2025, the 24-time Grand Slam champion is ready to take on his challengers and has laid out his plans to tackle Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

After notching his first win of the season at Brisbane International, Djokovic stressed it was important for him to put in the hours to get the better of these young guns. When it comes to the Australian Open, the Serb is planning to do video analysis to better understand Sinner, Alcaraz, and other major opponents and mold his game likewise.

"And ready to compete, whatever it takes, however many hours it takes with the youngsters," Novak Djokovic said. "And then, of course, you know, I think in the upcoming weeks, we will also, particularly the week before Australian Open, do a lot of video analysis of my main opponents, top guys."

"Trying to understand how my game matches up against theirs and what I have done in the past well, what I can improve," he added.

In 2024, Novak Djokovic lost to Jannik Sinner twice in two contests and came up short against Carlos Alcaraz in their second Wimbledon final in two years. The Serb had begun his 2025 season at the Brisbane International and lost to Reilly Opelka in the quarterfinals.