‘No variation’: How Novak Djokovic’s ruthless feedback helped Jannik Sinner turn around his game

Cahill decided to approach Djokovic for his views.

“Hits the ball great, but there’s no variation. So you know, there’s no shape on his shot. There’s no height over the net. Doesn’t come to the net. He’s not trying to bring me in, I know that he returns well, but he’s not attacking my serve on the return of serve,” Cahill recalled the feedback on the podcast ‘Served with Andy Roddick’.

“Novak got used to his ball, got used to the shape, got used to the pace and then just locked in, like Novak does, and doesn’t miss. And won the last three sets reasonably easily,” Cahill says about that 2022 match. “And I saw Novak, and he’s always great with this, he’s always been incredible when you tap him on the shoulder. And I said, ‘Hey listen, I’ve just started with Jannik, don’t tell me anything you don’t want to tell me, but can I ask what you were feeling out there?’ And he was incredible.”

Cahill then took the feedback to Sinner who was inspired to change his game. “So he went through his whole game and broke it down. It wasn’t like it was revelations to what we didn’t know about Jannik and what we were trying to change in his game.

“But when you take that conversation and sit down with a young man like Jannik Sinner and say,’ Hey, listen, I just spoke to Novak and this is what he thinks’, that leaves a big impression on a young player. So for Jannik it’s: ‘Right, give it to me. Let’s start doing these changes’.”

Sinner’s ranking at the end of that year 2022 was 15; he is now world no.1.