Miami [US], April 1 (ANI): Miami Open champion Jannik Sinner’s coach, Darren Cahill, made an ominous statement for the rest of the stars of the ATP Tour and opened up about the 22-year-old Italian’s journey to winning the third championship of the year.
The Italian Sinner outplayed Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-1 to win his first trophy at the hard-court event on the back of one of the best backhand performances of his career. Sinner slammed 57 backhand groundstrokes (excluding volleys) during the match and only missed two. Both faults were on the dead run and came from the end of his racquet. Everything else for the 72-minute final made it to court.
Cahill stated the 22-year-old Italian is loving life but also staying grounded.
“Right now he’s playing his hand. You can’t sugar-coat it. He’s playing great, and his level today was fantastic. But he can get better. As evolution goes along and you get a little bit older and stronger and faster and get a bit smarter, all those things are going to start to come into his game. We have been working on improving his serve, improving his transition game, improving his slice backhand to use it as a changeup shot, improving his direction on his forehand, return of serve. You can go through everybody’s game,” Cahill said of Sinner as quoted by ATP.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic suffered a defeat in a Round of 32 clash against Luca Nardi at the Miami Open. Despite not making it big in the tournament, the Serbian continued his stay at the World No.1 in ATP Rankings. Meanwhile, Daniil Medvedev faced defeat against the Italian Sinner 1-6, 2-6 in the semi-final.
“It’s the great thing about Novak as well. Novak at 36 years of age is still looking for improvement in his game, and we know that he’s going to make adjustments. We know that Daniil Medvedev will make adjustments. We know that changes will be made. Carlos Alcaraz continues to look for improvements in his serve. It’s just normal,” he added.
As keen as Sinner is to continue his quest for improvement, he is not taking these moments for granted. His victory at Hard Rock Stadium marked his second ATP Masters 1000 title and 13th tour-level trophy overall.
“He treasures these trophies. He understands that what he’s doing is privileged. He’s getting to play a sport that he loves and do it at the highest order. He’s loving every piece of his life at the moment. He appreciates every single moment that is happening to him at the moment, but he’s also got his feet on the ground knowing it’s just a sport, it’s just a tennis match, and beyond this, whilst he’s professional in everything he does, he enjoys his life. He’s a normal 22-year-old kid. There’s a lot to learn from him, a lot of good to learn from both him and Carlos. I think they’re very similar in many, many ways,” Cahill said.
“That’s why I think tennis is in great hands at the moment with the likes of those two and many other players coming through that are going to carry the torch [after] a generation we have been so fortunate to sit through the last 20 years. It’s important to have these types of sports people coming through,” he added. (ANI)
