Nishikori eyes grand slam success

The 2016 ATP Tour season looms as a big year for Nishikori as the Japanese star attempts to crack the dominance of the big four - Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.

Japan star Kei Nishikori is the only male Japanese tennis player ever to be ranked inside the top 10 in ATP Singles Ranking.

World number eight Kei Nishikori believes small adjustments to his preparation could propel him to grand slam success this year.

The 2016 ATP Tour season looms as a big year for Nishikori as the Japanese star attempts to crack the dominance of the big four - Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.

Boasting a 54-16 win-loss record, Nishikori made four finals in 2015, winning three in Memphis, Barcelona and Washington, while he was a quarter-finalist at the Australian and French Opens.

But the 26-year-old, who is gearing up for the Brisbane International, knows minor improvements are needed if he is to build on his runner-up display at the 2014 US Open.

"I just think that I have to do better all of the little things, all the proper things to win big tournaments; you have to win against top-five and top-10 players a couple of times," Nishikori told reporters. "That's going to be very important to beat Novak [Djokovic], he had a great year last year and I can imagine I'll have to beat him again somewhere in the future. I hope I can win the big tournaments this year.

"I think it [2015] was pretty good. I think it could have been a bit better but it was very important to finish in the top-eight again. I'm very happy to have played in London again last year. I hope I can do a little bit better in grand slams and big tournaments. Coming in to semi-finals and finals of grand slams is going to be my next goal, again, this year, and I hope I can win a Masters. That's going to be a big goal. But it was a great year last year."