Jannik Sinner’s coach, Darren Cahill, was proud of the Italian’s amazing resilience in his Wimbledon victory. Sinner handed Zverev his 10th consecutive loss against him at Centre Court on Sunday.
The Italian registered a 6-7(7), 7-6(2), 6-3, 6-4 win to defend his Wimbledon crown. The first two sets were neck to neck, with both going in the tiebreaker and Sinner equalised after taking the second-set tiebreaker by 7-2.
Cahill recalled that Sinner suffered a heartbreak when he could not convert a match point in the Roland Garros final against Carlos Alcaraz in 2025. Furthermore, the Italian suffered a second-round loss in the 2026 French Open despite having a 2-0 set lead.
“There’s been a few kicks in the stomach along the way,” Cahill said when reflecting on Sinner’s ‘amazing’ career so far. “Tough losses. The match points against Carlos [Alcaraz] the previous year. What happened to him at Roland Garros this year. But probably what makes us the most proud of him and working with him is the way he comes back from those. It doesn’t put him down for too long. Obviously, he’s disappointed after those moments.
“But it’s a day later. We get a phone call. ‘All right, boys, what are we doing? Let’s get back on the court. What are we working towards? What’s the plan? Where are we going? What do we need to do to get better?’ That’s his attitude in tennis and it is his attitude in life. That’s why he’s so great to work with.
“We spoke about his resilience in those moments, being able to come back and be bigger, stronger and faster whenever he has a bad moment. In this final he needed that to get through this match because he was tested badly against Zverev today. He showed amazing resilience. If you don’t have those tough moments, maybe you never grow like he’s been able to grow. We look at it as a big positive in his personality.”
Sinner had struggled with the heat in Paris in the second-round loss against Juan Manuel Cerundolo but Cahill said the Italian has learned to manage heat better.
“You can probably even see during the matches he leaves the court now after a couple of sets, goes and changes, walks into the air-conditioning, changes his shirt, even if he doesn’t have to,” Cahill said. “He’s getting in a routine on the warmer days to make sure he’s doing everything possible to make sure he can play his top level on those super, super hot days. Look, he’s a redhead who lives in the north of Italy, who grew up in the snow and the Alps. Hot weather is a little bit different for him than it is for most people.
“The more time he spends in the heat, the better he’s going to be at it. We already saw this here. I think it was one of the hottest Wimbledons on record. He managed through that incredibly well. We might even make some changes to the pre-season, chasing the sun a little bit more, getting him more acclimatised to playing in these types of conditions. He did amazingly well these entire two weeks.”
Sinner will look to carry the good show in the rest of the season.
