“With Simone Vagnozzi, I changed my backhand a bit, especially the sliced backhand” – Sinner

After qualifying for the quarter-finals in Miami, Jannik Sinner paid tribute to his coach, Simone Vagnozzi, with whom he has achieved huge success

Sinner 2024 Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic

Rémi Bourrières

March 27, 2024

He may not be as famous as Jannik Sinner‘s previous coach, Ricardo Piatti, or his other advisor, Darren Cahill. But Simone Vagnozzi, who has been with the Italian since the beginning of 2022, cannot be accused of having done a bad job with his young compatriot, who has established himself as the leading player on the ATP at the start of the 2024 season by compiling 19 victories in a row and clinching his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

Happy to announce I’ll be working with Simone Vagnozzi as my coach moving forward and he will be heading up my team. Currently we have no plans to add any more team members at this time but we will review the situation as we go. Excited to get started on this new chapter, Forza.
— Jannik Sinner (@janniksin) February 17, 2022

After reaching the quarter-finals of the Miami Open at the expense of the tricky Christopher O’Connell, Sinner paid tribute to Vagnozzi, giving some small details on the technical work done alongside him, especially on the backhand side.

“Technically and tactically, he’s one of the best coaches in the world,” the current world No 1 told his post-match press conference.

“He doesn’t have that rigidity of wanting a player to play in a specific way, but he observes and adapts according to the way he plays. And that’s very, very rare.”

“So, after Simone watched me, we decided to change my backhand a little bit technically, because he had spotted a few things that he felt would work better for me,” Sinner continued.

“Especially on my sliced backhand. Now, I don’t place my left hand at the top like the majority of players do with the two-handed backhand, but I prepare as if I were going to play a normal backhand.

“It’s not very academic, but it works… He’s not just here to be there, he’s amazing and I feel lucky to have him on my team.”

Sinner, who has also shown great progress in terms of variety since the beginning of the season, will face Tomas Machac in the quarterfinals in Miami, where he has twice made the final.