Darren Cahill's epic act emerges after helping dethrone Novak Djokovic at Aus Open
The Aussie master coach has been hard at work at this year's Australian Open for Jannik Sinner.
Darren Cahill has been captured analysing the rival Australian Open semi-final clash only a short time after Jannik Sinner credited the master Aussie coach with helping him prepare for his role in dethroning champ Novak Djokovic. The 22-year-old Sinner left the tennis world in disbelief on Friday having defeated 10-time Australian Open champion Djokovic in four sets.
Sinner completely outplayed the World No.1 and has now won three of the last four matches against the tennis legend. The young Italian has been all smiles on his way to the Australian Open final and has only dropped one set ahead of the showdown with Daniil Medvedev.
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And the Italian has credited plenty of his improvement to his experienced Australian coach. Cahill has helped guide Simona Halep, Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi all to World No.1 during his role as their coach.
And the 58-year-old's experience appears to be helping the 22-year-old Italian. Sinner recently admitted Cahill was brought on board to help with his mentality in the big moments, rather than a tactical coach.
“Yeah, for sure he’s always very relaxed,” Sinner said. “Even this morning, you know, we talk about normal things. Not always about tennis. Then 20 minutes before the match, we talk about tactics, how to handle certain situations.
“I think he helped not only me but I think the whole team to believe in ourself, but also to enjoy, because we travel so much around the world, and to enjoy the time together is really important. “I think the combination with him and also with Simone, it’s awesome on the court. I think at the moment we are handling everything in the right way.”
Darren Cahill's humble admission after Sinner's win
Simone Vagnazzi is Sinner's head coach, but Cahill is working with the group to help bring a more relaxed nature to the party. Sinner lost to Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2023 having been in a brilliant position to run away with the match.
And Cahill has credited Sinner with taking on all the lessons available from the loss and growing stronger as a result. This has seen him now overcome Djokovic at the Australian Open, arguably the second hardest feat in tennis other than defeating Rafa Nadal at Roland Garros.
“My role with Jannik is a little bit different to the other coaching roles that I’ve had. 99 per cent of the credit for the coaching goes to Simone,” Cahill said on Friday after Sinner's win over Djkovic. “He’s done an incredible job with Jannik. I’m more overseeing everything.
“Certainly we discuss tactics and the technical (side) and everything, but Simone is the guy driving a lot of what you see with the improvements of Jannik and he’s doing an incredible job. And Jannik is absorbing a lot of that information. The match he played against Novak at Wimbledon went a long way to teaching Jannik where he needed to get better. When he was up two sets to love and lost that match against Novak, we sat down and talked about where the improvements needed to be made.
“And credit to him, he absorbed it. For us as tennis coaches, it was really rewarding to see him on the court today do some of those things. It was great to learn from that match (at Wimbledon) and see him go with Novak early in the third and fourth. He did a great job to absorb that pressure from Novak and I thought the last couple of sets was amazing tennis from both players.”
The tennis world was quick to praise the Aussie who works behind the scenes for the tennis star and has seen the 22-year-old grow into a superstar. American coach Brad Gilbert was quick to make sure Cahill's role didn't get lost in the praise.
Holy Toledo what a effort from Sin City 🌃 @janniksin taking out Djoker to make 1st slam final @AustralianOpen most impressively didn’t face a BP in 4 sets @darren_cahill 👌😎👍💪👊
— Brad Gilbert (@bgtennisnation) January 26, 2024
Since Jannik Sinner brought on Darren Cahill as coach, his improvement has been rapid and clearly evident. Seems very likely it will culminate with an Australian Open title tomorrow.
— John B Gilman (@JohnBGilman) January 26, 2024
Darren Cahill deserves a ton of credit for where Sinner is. His talent has been there for years but he seemed just a step away from the top. Seems Cahill found that extra bit he needed and the ATP better look out!
— Ryan (@holyschick) January 26, 2024
And hats off to Darren Cahill @darren_cahill. One of the greatest wins. #AusOpen #JannikSinner
— Neil McMahon (@NeilMcMahon) January 26, 2024
Darren Cahill watches Medvedev-Zverev clash
After speaking to the media after Sinner's victory, Cahill was quickly back at work having gone back out to Rod Laver Arena to analyse Sinner's potential opponent between Medvedev and Alexander Zverev. And after more than four hours, Medvedev prevailed in an epic comeback. Cahill was seen watching the match, no doubt analysing both rivals to help Sinner win his maiden grand slam final.
Darren Cahill analysing Sinner’s potential opponent in the #AusOpen final 👀
He’s done a remarkable job. Arguably the best tennis coach around! pic.twitter.com/Lh37psJfjB— Christian Montegan (@monte_sports) January 26, 2024
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