Jannik Sinner with his coaches, including Simone Vagnozzi and Darren Cahill
Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner believes Simone Vagnozzi and Darren Cahill’s “open-mindedness” and their good chemistry have been key to his success.
Sinner became tennis’ newest Grand Slam champion on Sunday as he defeated Daniil Medvedev at Melbourne Park with Vagnozzi and Cahill mentoring him to glory only two years after they joined his coaching set-up.
Following a brilliant start to his career that saw him win six titles during his first three years on the ATP Tour, Sinner decided it was time to change his coaching set-up in early 2022 as he parted ways with Riccardo Piatti, who had been his mentor since his early teens.
He joined forces with Vagnozzi in February and by July that year Darren Cahill – who had coached the likes of Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi and Simona Halep – joined the team.
The results soon started to follow with Sinner taking his tennis to the next level in 2023 as he won four titles – including his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title at the Canadian Open – while he also finished runner-up at the Miami Open and ATP Finals. He also claimed some big scalps as he defeated Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev.
Cahill was named ATP Coach of the Year for 2023 and Team Sinner took it up another notch at the start of this season as the Italian won the Australian Open.
During his title celebrations at the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation headquarters in Rome, Sinner highlighted why Vagnozzi and Cahill have been so successful as he described them as “open-minded”.
“No one invades the other’s court. Simone is very good technically and tactically, he was also a player, he knows which shots work and which don’t,” he said.
“He and Darren are good at understanding what is best for me. Darren is more concerned with managing certain moments, he has won many Slams as a coach. The combination between Simone and Darren is one that is rarely found.”
As for changing coaches at the beginning of 2022, Sinner admitted that the decision “seemed crazy” at the time, but it was time to take the next step in his career.
“In life there are situations that go well, others that go bad, others that go well though… I had this in my head though. I made a choice that seemed crazy, but I threw myself into the fire,” he explained.
“I told myself that I wanted to learn about another working method, it wasn’t necessarily right or wrong.”
He added: “I must be good at understanding the people on my team, but I must also understand myself and what I want. What I have understood is that my team does not have to be the best of all but they must be people who they understand, where everyone does their job, and they are all good, normal people.”