When in 2022 he realized that he needed a change to give his tennis a further boost and start fighting side by side on the most important stages with the biggest players on the circuit,
Jannik Sinner
decided to get his hands on his coaching staff.
In February of that year, he began training with
Simone Vagnozzi
, former
coach
of his compatriots Marco Cecchinato and Stefano Travaglia.
And months later he also partnered with one of the most respected coaches in the racket world:
Darren Cahill
.
The Australian quickly became
an indispensable part of the team
and was key in the world number four's path to winning the
Australian Open
, which also marked
a new milestone in his career as a coach
.
Cahill owns an impressive brand: he led the four players he worked with full-time -
Lleyton Hewitt
,
Andre Agassi
,
Simona Halep
and now Sinner - to win Grand Slam tournaments.
The first three also reached the top of the ranking under his tutelage.
Will the Italian also achieve it?
"It helped all of us on the team believe in ourselves and trust that we have the power to beat the best. And it showed us that it is important to enjoy the time we share while traveling," Sinner said during his time in Melbourne, where he played superlative tennis and won his first "big" trophy with an impressive comeback in the final against
Daniil Medvedev
.
While Vagnozzi is in charge of carrying out day-to-day training with Sinner, focused on improving tactics and punches, Cahill focuses mainly on helping his pupil with the mental part and the general picture.
"My role is based on experience and helping him mentally in the important moments to know how to handle situations and make sure we work on the right details to get him to the place he wants to be.
The small details make a big difference in a player's career.
", explained a few months ago the Australian, considered one of the most brilliant minds in tennis.
Sinner and his team, after the consecration in Melbourne.
Reuters Photo
And also one of the most versatile, because she knew how to successfully train tennis players of different sexes, generations and personalities, coming from different cultures and with completely different playing styles.
Born in Adelaide 58 years ago, Cahill had a playing career without great lights.
In singles he reached the 22nd place in the ranking and won two titles: Gstaad 1988 and San Francisco 1991.
As a doubles player, he reached 10th place in the rankings,
won 13 trophies
and was a finalist in the Australian Open in 1989. Chronic injuries to both knees, which forced him to undergo
seven operations
and spend almost three years without playing between 1991 and 1994, they ended up retiring it in 1995.
He hadn't yet hung up his racket for good when he met Hewitt.
After playing for the first time with a 12-year-old Lleyton, at the request of the young player's father who thought his son "played pretty well," Cahill was impressed.
Cahill led Hewitt to be the youngest number one in history.
Photo Twitter
"When he came to my house with his dad, he had his cap on his back and a bag with eight rackets. We played three sets, I beat him quite easily in the first ones, but by the third I was getting tired and he was on fire. I didn't want to stop, He showed me his clenched fist, he threw the
"C'moooon"
. After that session, I told my wife:
'This guy is special. He has something I had never seen before
.' He had great technique and my role was teach him how to play, where to put the ball, understand the points and the game. He was a sponge," he recalled during an interview on
former player
Rennae Stubbs '
podcast
.
Cahill continued to collaborate with his young compatriot for a few weeks each year and in 1999 they began working together full time.
In that first season, Lleyton won his second title (Delray Beach) and climbed from 100th to 25th in the rankings.
And in 2001, the last time they shared, he was champion at
Wimbledon
and also won the
Masters Tournament
and became
the youngest number 1 in history
, a record that
Carlos Alcaraz
broke in 2022 .
The following year, Cahill became Agassi's new
coach
, although that partnership came close to falling through.
The thing is that in January 2022, while commentating on the Australian Open for Channel 7 in his country, he received a coaching proposal from a young
Marat Safin , who already had the
2000 United States Open
trophy in his cabinets
.
The Australian accompanied Safin in that edition of the "big" oceanic event, in which the Russian lost the final to the Swede
Thomas Johansson
, who according to reports played drunk (or at least, hungover) and was almost determined to extend the working relationship.
However, a call from Agassi changed history.
With Cahill, Agassi won his last Grand Slam, in New York, in 2003. Photo AFP
"A few days after the final, Andre called me and asked me if I could train him. I told him that I was about to accept Safin's offer and he understood. When my wife Victoria found out about Agassi's call, she told me:
'No. You can train him. We have a sexy Russian who is 22 years old and 1.95 meters tall. How old is Andre? 48, 49? He's old, he has no hair and he walks like a duck
.' But after a while Andre called again.
'You can't take that job. That guy is unstable and you don't want your wife around him
,' he assured me. I started laughing and he told me he wasn't going to get off the phone until I agreed to be his coach. So I accepted and we were together for five years," Darren said.
With Cahill in his
box
, in 2003 Agassi was crowned champion in Melbourne and
returned to the top of the ranking
, a position he had not occupied since September 2000 and from which he displaced Hewitt.
The American became the oldest player to lead the
ATP
rankings , a title that
Roger Federer
stole from him in 2018.
The Las Vegas native also reached the finals in New York in 2002 and 2005 and won several important titles in that period.
The partnership with Darren ended in 2006, when he retired.
Cahill then began working as a match analyst for
ESPN
during three Grand Slams (Australia, Wimbledon and the US Open) and collaborated with several internationally renowned players, such as
Andy Murray
,
Ana Ivanovic
,
Fernando Verdasco
,
Daniela Hantuchova
and
Simona Halep
.
Between 2007 and 2009 she was also captain of the Australian
Davis Cup
team .
Cahill coached Halep between 2017 and 2018 and together they won Roland Garros 2018. AP Photo
In 2017 he became Halep's
full-time
coach , who in the two full seasons he worked with the Australian won his first Grand Slam,
Roland Garros 2018
, reached the finals of two others (Paris 2017 and Australia 2018) and finished both. years as number 1 in the
WTA
.
Cahill also had something to do with Simona's consecration at
Wimbledon 2019
, because although he was no longer her main
coach
, he continued to help his former pupil for some time.
Three players under his wing, three Grand Slam champions and three number 1s.
With that
resume
, Cahill became one of the most prestigious and most sought after coaches in the world of tennis.
That's why when Sinner, who had been playing for several seasons at a very high level but had not yet been able to take the last step to seriously aspire to win a "big one" or reach the top of the ranking, decided to make a big bet to achieve that goal, thought about him.
And the Australian, who had approached the Italian as a result of his work at ESPN, accepted the challenge.
"I knew Jannik as a player, but not as a person.
He impressed me. He is humble, witty, cultured and passionate about tennis.
For me, that is the most important thing. Then there is the athlete, whose qualities are visible to everyone. He is "a tiger in a cage, who has been making constant progress. Mentally he reminds me of Hewitt: he has the same sparkle in his eyes, something you don't see very often," commented who last year, along with Vagnozzi, was awarded for the ATP as
Best Coach of the Year
, for the great season his player had.
After Sinner's consecration in Melbourne, he reflected: "He is a special boy. When you hit the ball like he does, when you want to improve like he does and when you move like he does, at some point you are going to be successful. Our job as coaches is to try to accelerate that as quickly as possible and get him where he wants to go quickly so that he can be at the top for a long time. He's doing well, he's absorbing everything and trying new things on the court.
I'm sure that later "For this victory to settle, he will not settle. He never will
."
H.S.