Coach Darren Cahill confirms the entire team put a lot emphasis on Jannik Sinner's serve and return combination, and also reveals they watched the old clips from the Big Three and tried to learn from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
If you can recall, Felix Auger-Aliassime competed extremely well early on in his ATP Finals group-stage opener against Sinner, but the Italian still found a way to rout an inspired Canadian 7-5 6-1. Speaking with the reporters after the defeat, Auger-Aliassime admitted that he felt major pressure on the Italian's first shot in a point. Also, the Canadian declared the reigning Wimbledon champion as the player with "the best serve and return" combination on the first shot.
After beating Auger-Aliassime, Sinner also went on to beat Alexander Zverev, Ben Shelton, Alex de Minaur, Carlos Alcaraz, and to lift the ATP Finals title with a perfect 5-0 record in Turin.
Cahill, who has been a part of Sinner's team since 2022, declared the first in the rally "the most important," before explaining what they did to make that such a weapon in the 24-year-old's game.
Sinner's coach Cahill: We tried to learn from the best - Federer, Nadal and Djokovic
"We tried to learn from the best, Rafa, Novak and Roger, and try to implement as much as we can from those guys to give our guy and put as much pressure on our opponents as possible. It's that built-up pressure that helps these guys when the score gets tight. So you're right, the first serve, first shot, and the return of serve are really important," Cahill explained.
"We still feel like, as good as Jannik returns serve, he's got areas in that part of the game where he can improve. That's the really interesting thing and exciting thing in working with somebody as good as Jannik, is there are parts of his game we still feel can get a lot better."
For Sinner, it was another extremely successful season, during which he won two Grand Slam titles and had a couple of stints at the world No. 1 spot before ultimately losing the Year-End No. 1 battle to Alcaraz.
