Serena Williams' former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has highlighted similarities between Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic but thinks the Italian is better than Djokovic in one area.
Sinner ended his incredible 2024 season by retaining the Davis Cup with Italy, securing the title by beating Tallon Griekspoor. That was the icing on the cake for him after everything he has already achieved in 2024.
The 23-year-old won his maiden Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and US Open, beating Daniil Medvedev in an epic five-set battle in Melbourne before a more one-sided final against Fritz at Flushing Meadows.
Other achievements included winning a first ATP Finals title, three Masters 1000 events, and becoming the fastest player to guarantee the year-end No. 1 ranking since Novak Djokovic's dominant 2015 season.
Sinner also became very wealthy in 2024. At the ATP Finals, he received the most significant paycheck for an ATP event in tennis history: $4,805,000. However, that was not the largest amount he won at an event this year.
The Italian won $6,000,000 for becoming the champion at the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia. Sinner insisted afterward that he did not play for money and only went to compete against great players, but many fans were skeptical of those words.
His incredible accomplishments were made possible by several technical improvements, which were noticed by Mouratoglou, now Naomi Osaka's coach.
Mouratoglou told Tennis Majors that it made sense to call the Italian player Djokovic 2.0 because of his similarities to the 24-time Grand Slam champion, but he also believes Sinner is superior in one aspect of the game.
"I think it makes sense to call him Djokovic 2.0 because movement, counterpunching, unbelievable. Same qualities as Novak and I think he added 2.0 because he is playing faster by taking the balls earlier. He is moving up all the time."
"I think what makes Sinner very special is his ability to play at an incredibly high pace without missing. I think he is one of the guys who plays the fastest because of the way he hits the ball but also because of his movement. He is moving forward all the time. That makes it extremely difficult to play against him. Plus, his movement is unbelievable."
The French coach, who is also known for giving Simona Halep the collagen that led to her positive doping tests and suspension from the sport, thinks Sinner improved his serve and makes players question how they can hurt him.
"Basically when you attack him, he counter punches. He has the qualities of Novak in terms of counter-punching and I think he plays at a higher pace than Novak, taking the balls earlier, moving forward more."
"When you are very aggressive taking the balls early, giving no time to your opponent and making an extremely limited number of unforced errors, how do you play against a guy like that?"
"He improved his serve lately, which is very important. If you look at the matches, when there are key moments, he hits aces, and his return is amazing."
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