Jannik Sinner 'caught a break' as coach makes confession after Wimbledon win

Jannik Sinner's coach Darren Cahill has admitted the world No. 1 "caught a break" in his fourth-round match against Grigor Dimitrov before going on to win Wimbledon. The Italian trailed the 34-year-old by two sets to love, and it was 2-2 in the third set when Dimitrov was suddenly forced to retire in tears with a pectoral injury.

It meant Sinner was able to advance to the quarter-final, and he won his last three matches in statement fashion, dropping just one set, to be crowned the Wimbledon winner for the first time by beating two-time reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz in the final. But Cahill knew the Italian got off lightly against Dimitrov.

The Australian tennis coach said: "Great challenge for us actually, because he caught a break, no question about it. He was just getting his teeth into that match. Best of five, you never know what's going to happen.

"We in the box still had great belief he was going to dig his way out of that hole, and we felt like he was just starting to play the way we wanted.

"But anything can happen on grass. The way Grigor was playing, if he continued to play at that level, then yeah, he was a good chance to close it out.

"But we in the box always had faith that he was going to get himself out of that match. But yes, he caught a break."

Cahill is an experienced coach, also working with the likes of Simona Halep and Andre Agassi. And he knew that Sinner wasn't going to win another Major title without experiencing a bump in the road.

He continued: "We kept reiterating to him that Grand Slam, in men's tennis, it's seven matches, it's best-of-five. Nobody goes through a tournament without a hiccup, whether it be an injury or a little bit of luck or you get yourself out of an early round problem. Everybody has a story in a Grand Slam. Maybe this was going to be his story.

"So take it for what it is, put it to one side, and his main job was to concentrate on his next opponent. If you beat the next opponent, then you move on, and you make the most of it.

"He does that. It's the same way he approached his loss at Roland Garros. He saw it for what it was, understood that he played an incredible match at Roland Garros. He was beaten in the end by a better player.

"Never played a better clay court match than what he played there. So he knew he was improving as a tennis player, and he was able to put it to one side and just focus on the next day. That's a pretty rare quality to have. It's a great effort by Jannik."

Simone Vagnozzi, Sinner's other coach, had his own theory about that French Open final. Exactly five weeks ago, the world No. 1 blew three championship points against Alcaraz and lost in five sets.

He'd taken the first set from an early break down - which is exactly what Alcaraz did at Wimbledon on Sunday before losing 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4.

Vagnozzi joked: "I said to Darren that in Paris we won the first set, like Carlos won today the first set. So I said, Probably it's good sign."

Cahill disagreed, but the Italian coach added: "Don't worry, it's a good sign! No, for sure Jannik had good start, but Carlos play unbelievable four games. The only thing I said to Jannik after first set is to be less predictable, especially with the serve, because he was using just the wide serve or the T serve. It was not going into the body, never.

"He became a little bit more unpredictable, and for sure this helped Jannik to keep his serve a little bit easily in the first set. But was always with the right confidence. I think he start the first three games not so clean, but then from this moment he start to play really good."

To be the first to receive the latest Wimbledon news, join our WhatsApp community or Wimbledon newsletter