If teamwork really does make dream work, then it’s no wonder that Jannik Sinner is thriving.
The Italian’s coaches seemed completely at ease and comfortable in each other’s company on Friday as they addressed the media at Australian Open 2024.
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Sinner also briefly interjected on the day he advanced to his first Grand Slam final by ending the 33-match winning streak of Novak Djokovic at Melbourne Park.
“How is it to coach Jannik?” asked not a journalist but the fourth seed himself.
“It’s a crappy job,” replied the better known of his two coaches, Darren Cahill. “We are not paid enough. The guy gives us a hard time all the time, and he’s forever actually taking our money in card games.
“And he gets a lot of enjoyment about that stuff.”
A major ingredient in a player's success requires more than a tablespoon of harmony and Sinner’s other coach, Simone Vagnozzi, Cahill, physio Giacomo Naldi and fitness trainer Umberto Ferrara all appear in sync.
Two years ago, the 22-year-old had an entirely different entourage. It came as a surprise when he parted company with Riccardo Piatti, who guided him up the ranks and during his early days on the pro tour.
Italian players teaming with coaches for years and years is far from unusual, as evidenced by Lorenzo Musetti and Lorenzo Sonego. Former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini cut ties with Vincenzo Santopadre late last year following a 13-year stint.
But Sinner felt he needed a change and assembled a new inner circle, led by Vagnozzi, who made three Challenger semifinals in his playing career prior to turning to coaching.
Vagnozzi lost one of those Challenger semifinals to Pere Riba, coach of women’s finalist Zheng Qinwen.
Adelaide’s Cahill joined after a trial at Wimbledon in 2022, when Sinner lost in the quarterfinals to Djokovic in five sets.
He said he was made to feel at home, and quickly. A bonus for Cahill? Learning the finer points of pasta.
“I cannot thank them enough for inviting me into this team and making me feel welcome,” said Cahill. “It would be easy for these guys to talk Italian amongst themselves.
“I'm there, but I'm part of the family.
“And it's not just the family that we have. We have an extended family with other people around us that you don't see.
“And then the fans that Jannik has in Italy and around the world. It's been fun and feels like a lot of love, to be honest.”
Sinner, backed by his ‘Carota Boys’ fan club in Melbourne, recently shed light on how he chooses potential team members.
“When I ask someone to join my team it's not only if they are the best in their work but also how I feel with them,” he told the ATP late last year. “For me that is very important because we spend not only the time when we work together, but also at dinner and in the morning.
“I see more of them than my family, so you have to feel very comfortable. They also have to understand my problems, as I sometimes have to understand their problems even if they are a little bit older than I am.
“It is just important to talk about everything very openly.”
Cahill’s success with Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi and Simona Halep always makes him a candidate for a top coaching job if he is free.
He played down his role in Sinner’s rapid progression, however, giving much of the praise instead to Vagnozzi.
“My role with Jannik is a little bit different to the other coaching roles that I've had, and 99 per cent of the credit for the coaching goes to Simone,” said Cahill, who also commended the work of Piatti. “He's done an incredible job with Jannik.
“I'm more overseeing everything. Certainly, we discuss tactics and the technical and everything, but Simone is the voice. He's the guy driving a lot of what you see in the improvements of Jannik.
“Part of our role as coaches is to help him learn from experiences and build that resilience.
“I think the match he played against Novak at Wimbledon went a long way to teaching Jannik where he needed to get better.”
If Sinner defeats now three-time Australian Open finalist Daniil Medvedev on Sunday, Cahill’s resume will feature another Grand Slam winner.
Italy, too, would have its first men’s winner of a major since 1976.
Cahill first noted Sinner’s impressive ball striking in his longstanding role as a TV analyst at ESPN. He bracketed the San Candido native in northern Italy with some of the game’s greats in that regard.
“Agassi hits the ball like that. When he hits the ball, it just sounds like it's hit harder than everybody else,” said Cahill.
“A lot of the great champions. Rafa (Nadal) was the exactly the same. Roger (Federer) when he hit a forehand, you could just hear the sound of it. And Novak, when he hits a forehand and backhand, it's like a thud.
“It's not just a normal person striking the ball. All those players have a different sound when they hit the ball and Jannik certainly has that as well.”