Jannik Sinner might be the hottest name in tennis right now, but around 18 months ago, he was marred with injuries. Sinner had multiple injuries and illnesses in the 2022 season which hampered his progress in tournaments like the Australian Open, Miami Masters, Rome Masters, French Open, ATP Finals and the Davis Cup. However, since he hired Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi as well as trainer Umberto Ferrara, Sinner has grown leaps and bounds to become the fittest player on the ATP Tour today by far, and he has acknowledged his team after the Miami Open 2024 win in a post-tournament media interaction.
Ferrara has been magnificent in his work with Sinner, something that even coach Cahill appreciates, as per Tennis Majors. With a clear idea about requirements, Ferrera doesn’t break down the training schedule in 2-3 months. Instead, he lets the schedule spread out over 6 months.
Cahill was quoted as saying in that interview recently about Ferrera –
“He’s been a genius in what he’s been able to do. I think it’s really important that anybody, when you come in to a team, is that firstly you map out the progress that you need to make. You’re very clear on the training that he needed to do. You don’t try to pack in six months of work into two months. You break down the athlete. Umberto has been unbelievable in that.
“It’s been a consistent training regime now from the moment we started nearly two years ago to what you see now with Jannik.
“Umberto has been able to map out the training. Jannik is committed to it. It’s not easy. So Jannik has bought in, he’s committed to doing the work. Now he’s starting to reap the benefits of a lot of work from what he started two years ago,” Cahill added.
To break down his weekly training schedule, Sinner starts with simple cardio and strength training on the first day. It is just preparing him for the intense training to follow. A good warmup also reduces the chance of any injury.
Injuries have been detrimental previously for Sinner. After the 2022 Sofia Open semi-final, Sinner was ruled out for a month owing to his injury. This is besides his hip and abdominal injuries, which kept him out intermittently as well.
Now, his exercises include squats, deadlifts, bench presses, pull-ups, and planks, just to improve his strength conditioning. He also does lunges, shoulder presses, and core work which improves his muscular balance. This is extremely important in minimizing the chance of an injury during a high-intensity match.
Another aspect of improvement is the mental aspect of the sport. Jannik Sinner, a lifelong fan of Ferrari, has attributed his mental toughness to the Formula 1 training program (via Her Campus) . Sinner was quoted as saying –
“It is a little bit different because you don’t talk one-to-one, but you do certain exercises on the computer and they calculate how much of your brain you used, and then they help you to make it as automatic as possible with using less time and less brain.”
Just like F1 drivers, Sinner too calculates his brain usage during workouts, which helps in completing a finite set of work with minimum stress on the brain. This helps him keep a good track of how much of his brain usage is spent on what particular aspect.
Tennis too plays a major part in Sinner’s training and recovery program as per Men’s Health. For an hour daily, Sinner does forehand and backhand drills, which not only improves his form but also helps in retaining muscle memory. Ferrera’s mapping out his daily schedule and Sinner has been following it religiously.
Jannik Sinner is grateful for his coaches and training
After his thumping win over Grigor Dimitrov by 6-3, 6-1 in the Miami Open final, Sinner spoke about his coaches and his biggest improvements under them. While his incredible ‘serve’ has been the major talking point, ever since he became a winning machine, unstoppable on court, he also mentioned how his physical condition has improved a lot. Sinner attributed spending long hours in the gym helping him win in long rallies, without tiring himself.
Sinner, who has been one of the fastest and most agile athletes on the tennis court currently, has also worked a lot on his footwork. Bad footwork can cause a risk of injury, as Sinner suffered once on his knees. Overall, Sinner seems to have found the perfect solution for himself ready and checked for any major tennis tournament.
And the way he is going, he does look invincible at the moment. His only loss this year so far came against Carlos Alcaraz at the Indian Wells 2024 semi-final.
