Sinner practiced non-stop before defeating Djokovic

Jannik Sinner's coach Darren Cahill said his student practices five hours on one shot to improve himself before the 2024 Australian Open.

"Did you hear the sound of the ball when Sinner hit the racket? It was quite similar to Agassi, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic himself," coach Cahill excitedly told Eurosport after Sinner defeated Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals on the afternoon of January 26.

According to Coach Cahill, the difficulty of coaching Sinner is to prevent the Italian from practicing too much. "If I don't chase him away, Sinner will be on the court for four or five hours, practicing the same shot over and over again. I have to try to balance everything for him. Sometimes I wonder if we can do anything together," he said.

Coach Cahill, an Australian, with his student Sinner during a practice session before Wimbledon in 2023. Photo: ATP — Coach Cahill, an Australian, with his student Sinner during a practice session before Wimbledon in 2023. Photo: *ATP*

Sinner was one of the few players not to play a warm-up tournament before the Australian Open. He chose to stay at the training camp to work on his shots, before heading to Melbourne to get used to the competition conditions.

Coach Cahill and his Italian colleague Simone Vagnozzi have been coaching Sinner since mid-2022. They have guided the 1m88 tall player to steady progress, with milestones such as reaching the quarterfinals of the 2022 US Open, the semi-finals of Wimbledon 2023 and now the final of the Australian Open. In the past two years, Sinner has won five more titles in eight finals. Cahill and Vagnozzi were awarded the ATP Coach of the Year award at the end of last year.

According to Cahill, the defeat to Djokovic in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon 2022 helped Sinner realize what he needed to improve. He said: "That loss was a big lesson. Sinner looked back on it, a loss in five sets when you've won two sets always leaves a lot of impressions. Sinner started going to the practice court, gathering information and working hard. Today, watching him play, I saw the results."

Djokovic, after his defeat on the afternoon of January 26, also highly appreciated Sinner's team. He said that having an experienced coach like Cahill helped Sinner play more confidently in important moments of the big match.

Coach Cahill once helped Lleyton Hewitt become the youngest world number one in history in the early 2000s. Then he made Andre Agassi the oldest tennis player to hold the world number one position, in May 2003. The 58-year-old coach also helped Simona Halep become the WTA number one in 2018 after winning the Roland Garros championship.

Under Cahill’s tutelage, Sinner has dropped just one set en route to this year’s Australian Open final. He has been the ATP’s most in-form player in recent months, with 19 wins in 20 matches since October 2023. If he beats Medvedev in the final on the afternoon of January 28, Sinner will climb to a career-best ranking of world number three.

Vy Anh

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