Sinner’s Ex-Coach Suggests Nadal’s Former Mentor As Possible Replacement
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The 2025 ATP season will be Jannik Sinner's final one with Darren Cahill. His former coach, Riccardo Piatti, named some potential options for replacing the Australian.
Piatti coached Sinner from the age of 13 until February 2022. The three-time Grand Slam champion's impressive development under Piatti from a promising young player into someone near the top meant many were surprised by Sinner's decision to split from him.
Although Piatti did exceptional work with Sinner and deserves some of the credit for his eventual transformation into the ATP world No. 1, the split and hiring of Simone Vagnozzi and then Cahill in June 2022 proved wise.
That pair helped Sinner reach the very top by winning two Australian Opens, the 2024 US Open, the 2024 ATP Finals, and two Davis Cup titles. Sinner has remained the world No. 1 since reaching the summit after the 2024 French Open.
Sinner has also spoken about how much Cahill supported him during his high-profile doping saga. He tested positive for the banned substance clostebol at the 2024 after accidental contamination from his physiotherapist.
Unlike the choice to split from Piatti, it is evident that Sinner does not want Cahill to leave his team. The Australian announced he was retiring from coaching at the end of the 2025 season to live a quieter life.
WeLoveTennis reported on comments Piatti made about a possible replacement for Cahill. He named four possible options but seemed to favor Carlos Moya, Rafael Nadal's coach for the last seven years of his career, the most.
"I would like to see Carlos Moya in that position. He was the world number one, he knows the Tour very well. He is a very good person, as is Darren. Another good candidate is Renzo Furlan, who has just finished his collaboration with Jasmine Paolini. Ljubicic is also good, as is Becker. However, Boris can be complicated."
It is unclear whether Moya wants to coach again. The 1998 French Open champion is a close friend of Nadal's, which made their collaboration make sense, especially when Nadal's uncle Toni, his longtime coach until February 2017, decided to move on.
When referring to Boris Becker, Piatti's mention of complications might be related to his unwillingness to travel for the entire season. That issue was why his partnership with Holger Rune was short-lived.
In the meantime, Sinner and Cahill will try to make the most of the time they have left together when he returns to the ATP Tour. This year's Australian Open champion has been banned since February 9th and will be until May 4th after accepting a three-month ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency to settle his case.
Umberto Ferrara, Sinner's former fitness coach at the time, who gave his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, the trofodermin that led to Sinner being contaminated from Naldi's massages, made a startling admission in a recent interview.
Ferrara revealed he has used trofodermin for years to manage a chronic disease and used it in his private bathroom away from Sinner. The fitness coach claims to have told Naldi to keep it away from the world No. 1, but the physiotherapist obviously did not heed that warning.
