Jannik Sinner’s evolution under Darren Cahill – only Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev have more points

Ewan West 03 Nov 2023 5:08 PM

Darren Cahill and Jannik Sinner during a practice session

World No 4 Jannik Sinner has had a superb 2023 season and has made significant strides since joining forces with elite coach Darren Cahill last year.

Cahill previously coached Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Simona Halep to Grand Slam titles, while he has also worked with players such as Andy Murray and Ana Ivanovic.

The Australian, nicknamed “Killer Cahill”, also had an impressive playing career, reaching career-high rankings of 22 in singles and 10 in doubles. The 58-year-old, who played between 1984 and 1995, won two singles titles and 13 doubles tournaments.

Here, we take a look at the development of one of the brightest talents in the sport since Cahill has been in his corner.

ATP points and wins earned since Cahill was hired

Cahill was appointed as Sinner’s coach in June 2022 during the grass-court season, having last worked with WTA player Amanda Anisimova. The Australian joined Italian Simone Vagnozzi, who has coached Sinner since he split with long-time coach Riccardo Piatti in February 2022, on the rising star’s team.

Since the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, where no points were awarded due to the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, Sinner has earned 6,470 ATP points.

Only the current top three players in the ATP Rankings – Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev – have earned more points than Sinner since Cahill’s appointment.

The 22-year-old Italian has outperformed established stars like Andrey Rublev (6,365 points) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (5,730 points), as well as young rival Holger Rune (5,395 points), over this period.

Since Wimbledon last year, Sinner has collected 76 wins and suffered only 21 losses with Cahill in his coaching box (not including Davis Cup matches).

In July 2022, the Italian defeated Alcaraz to triumph at the Croatia Open in Umag and claim the first of five titles he has won under Cahill’s guidance.

Sinner is currently at a career-high ATP world ranking of No 4, having been in 13th position prior to Wimbledon last summer when the Australian came on board.

These points totals are prior to the quarter-finals of the 2023 Paris Masters.

Sinner’s stellar 2023 season

Having posted a 47-16 (74.6%) season record in 2022, Sinner has improved considerably to 57-14 (80.28%) this year in his first full season with Cahill (following his appearance at the Paris Masters, where he withdrew before of his third round match).

The Italian, who started 2023 ranked 15th, was strong in February, where he beat Maxime Cressy to win the ATP 250 title in Montpellier, before losing to Medvedev in the Rotterdam ATP 500 final.

The 22-year-old continued this form into the back-to-back Masters 1000 events in March, where he was a semi-finalist in Indian Wells and runner-up at the Miami Open, losing to Alcaraz and Medvedev respectively.

Sinner then made the last four at the Monte-Carlo Masters in April, losing to Rune, before a quieter stretch for the rest of the clay-court season.

He bounced back from a marathon French Open second round defeat to Daniel Altmaier by making his career-best Grand Slam run at Wimbledon, where he reached the semi-finals and fell to Djokovic.

The Italian then achieved another significant first at his following tournament in Toronto in August, where he downed Alex De Minaur in the final to win his maiden ATP Masters 1000 event, and the biggest title of his career to date.

Following a five-set last 16 US Open defeat to Alexander Zverev in September, Sinner has put together a fine late-season run. He earned extremely impressive consecutive wins over Grigor Dimitrov, Alcaraz and Medvedev to win the China Open ATP 500 event in Beijing last month.

Sinner then added a further ATP 500 trophy to his collection – and a fourth title of 2023 – when he earned another final victory over Medvedev to claim the Vienna Open title last week.

The 10-time title winner has an excellent tally of eight wins over top 10 players so far this year, having had nine in his entire career beforehand.

The Innichen-born star has qualified for the ATP Finals for the first time in his career in 2023 and will feature at the year-end showpiece in Turin later this month.