By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday, June 20, 2022
When Jannik Sinner parted ways with longtime coach Riccardo Piatti in February, rumors swirled that the Italian may be ready to do a deal with Magnus Norman, the highly respected former coach of Stan Wawrinka. Instead the Italian ended up hiring Simone Vagnozzi, a former ATP player from Italy who had previously coached Marco Cecchinato as well as Stefano Travaglia.
It wasn't exactly an earth-shattering hire, but more news regarding Sinner's team would soon be in the offing.
Sinner appears to have landed a bigger name to lead his team as of this week. The Italian has been seen training with Darren Cahill, former coach of Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Simona Halep, in Eastbourne, according to multiple sources.
Cahill's availability comes as a bit of a surprise, given the circumstances. The Aussie was coaching American Amanda Anisimova earlier this season, but left his post due to personal problems.
“I arrived in the US about 3 days before heading to Indian Wells and didn’t feel right,” he would later say of the turbulent time in his life.
“After the second day on court with Amanda, I quickly realized that there was no way I was going to be able to go the distance and give her the attention and care needed to do the coaching job properly," Cahill said.
“It’s not easy to explain but since emerging from the enforced 28-day quarantine late last year in Australia, I’ve had trouble getting going. That was on the back of 14 days’ quarantine before the AO in 2021, and then 9 months abroad because of our border restrictions and quarantine rules.”
Off the tour for a few months, Cahill has found the energy to take on a grand challenge.
“Back to work and can’t wait,” Cahill posted on Instagram last week. “Healthy again, rested and excited for what lies ahead. A massive thank you to my doctors, amazing family and close friends who looked after me, and all who reached out in the last four months.”
20-year-old Sinner, ranked 13, is one of the bigger prospects in men’s tennis. He owns five career titles, and is currently 27-7 in 2022. Most recently Sinner had to pull out of his round of 16 match with Andrey Rublev at Roland-Garros in the third set with a knee injury and he has yet to play on grass this season.