Sinner makes Piatti split official

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The reports out of Italy had been circulating for a few days now.

But on Wednesday, 20-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner made official his split with respected coach and countryman Riccardo Piatti – the only coach he’s really known since he got serious about tennis.

We had reached out to both Piatti and Sinner’s agent in the last few days to confirm the reports. But no response from either, so we waited until either they responded, or something official was released.

Actually, this is more than just arrivederchi to Piatti – it’s so long to the entire team of people who supported him in his lightning-quick rise to the top 10.

(To be fair, they are Piatti people, so it wouldn’t be realistic to sack the coach and keep anyone from his staff).

Here’s his statement.

pic.twitter.com/bemRMEPWH5
— Jannik Sinner (@janniksin) February 16, 2022

It’s not much, considering it’s highly probable Sinner wouldn’t be where he is without them.

And it’s delicate, as Piatti was much more than just a tennis coach for Sinner for many years. He oversaw basically everything having to do with his career. And it was under his guidance that Sinner ended up signing with Lawrence Frankopan and StarWing Sports.

But there’s no denying the kid has hit a bit of a plateau at this point.

Whether that’s reason enough to completely clean house is something that will only become clear with time.

Sinner had become reliable at beating players ranked below him. But he has rarely been able to crack the very best players – top-five players.

And once you get into the top 10, the stairs are steeper and you really need a couple of major results at majors to make your next moves.

In tough against the Top 5

Sinner had the truly bad fortune of running into Rafael Nadal in the Roland Garros quarterfinals in 2020, and the fourth round in 2021.

But he also has lost to Marton Fucsovics – twice – at majors.

More recently, he was straight-setted by Alexander Zverev at the US Open last fall, and straight-setted by Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Australian Open last month.

It’s a bump in the road for the kid, who is the purest of ball strikers but doesn’t yet have a well-rounded game. He also has to fill out physically, and only years can take care of that.

But Piatti is a very, very good coach. And these are the types of moves that definitely should be made over an off-season – not a month in, with a couple of Masters 1000s coming up in a few weeks.

A name circling as a new coach for Sinner is … Magnus Norman, the former world No. 2 who did such great work with a mature Stan Wawrinka (who also, as it happens, is a longtime client of Frankopan’s).

Sinner is playing Dubai next week. So no doubt there will be more information forthcoming although – remembering he’s just a kid – it’s hard to know if he’s even processed it all yet.