Jannik Sinner Announces Coaching Change and Injury Update: Focus on Long-Term Career and Australian Open Comeback

Jannik Sinner lost the world number one ranking after months on the sidelines with a knee injury, Eurosport reported.

The Italian player has not played a competitive match since July, when he defeated Germany’s Alexander Zverev in four sets (6:7, 7:6, 6:3, 6:4) to win his fifth Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, according to Eurosport. Sinner ended his ATP season prematurely to recover from the knee issue.

Capitalizing on the lengthy absence, Zverev captured his second major title at the US Open to claim the number one ranking, while Carlos Alcaraz also secured a major victory in Paris, Eurosport reported.

Speaking at an event in Milan on Tuesday, Sinner admitted that watching his rivals compete while he was immobilized brought an unfamiliar feeling. “The truth is that for the first time in my career, I don’t have things under control,” Sinner said, as quoted by Eurosport. “It is not an easy time.”

Thank you, Darren. 🧡 pic.twitter.com/xfHHTTqPt1

— Post by @janniksin on X

Alongside his recovery, Sinner announced a major change to his coaching setup by parting ways with Darren Cahill after five years of collaboration, as reported by Eurosport. Under Cahill, Sinner climbed to the top of the rankings and collected five Grand Slam titles. In a farewell video on Instagram, Sinner thanked his former coach, stating, You came to me as one of my trainers. Pretty quickly you became much more than that. Someone I could trust. A friend. Magnus Norman joins the team in December to work alongside Simone Vagnozzi, according to Eurosport. Norman previously guided Stan Wawrinka to three Grand Slam titles.

The 50-year-old Swedish coach won twelve ATP titles during his playing career and reached a ranking of number two in the world in 2000, when he reached the final of the French Open against Gustavo Kuerten. Cahill and Sinner had originally intended to part ways at the end of 2025, but their contract was extended by another year due to the player’s continued success.

Sinner explained that Norman is very similar to Cahill as a person and noted that the new coach will not make fundamental changes to his training concept. Er akzeptiert die Art und Weise, wie wir bereits arbeiten. Das ist mir wichtig, weil ich nicht schon wieder alles verändern möchte, Sinner emphasized, adding that he aims to improve by one percent every year to continue developing as a player.

Sinner’s immediate return to competitive play is not yet fixed on a specific date, though he intends to make his comeback at the Australian Open in January, potentially playing a warm-up tournament beforehand, Eurosport reported. Before then, he is scheduled to compete at the Six Kings Slam exhibition event in Saudi Arabia in late December.

“I have to take everything step by step and work every day toward this goal, because if we rush the return, the situation could even worsen,” Sinner said, as reported by Eurosport. He noted that if he returns to the court a month later it changes nothing, as his goal is to play tennis for another ten to fifteen years.