Riccardo Piatti confirmed there had been heated moments between him and Jannik Sinner but dismissed it as something big by claiming that it was only "a normal player-coach dynamic."
During a 2022 Australian Open third-round match against Taro Daniel, the Italian tennis star turned to his coach and angrily told him, "I'm using my head and you (expletive) stay calmer." The moment was picked up by the cameras and TV viewers could have clearly heard it.
While Sinner won that match and reached the quarterfinal before losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas, he and Piatti split shortly afterward. In Italian media, it was rumored that there had been tension between the two for quite some time.
"Everyone remembers the match with Daniel, in Melbourne, in January 2022, when he said: calm down, damn it. He was angry with me for things on the court, it had already happened other times: it's normal dynamics between coach and player. That's not the problem," Piatti told Corriere della Serra.
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Piatti insists he was fine with Sinner's decision
When a 17-year-old Sinner won a total of five titles in 2019 - including the NextGen ATP Finals - Piatti was widely credited for his early rise and success. And some thought that their split wouldn't happen until at least they won a Grand Slam together.
"I always wanted Jannik to become independent, I knew that one day he would leave. But with him I had to be the rigorous coach, sometimes rigid: it was my role. Ljubicic reproaches me for telling him: you decide too, Ivan, but then do as I say. For Jannik, this penalty, at a certain point, was too much to bear," Piatti added.
Since splitting with the 66-year-old, Sinner has worked with Darren Cahill and Simona Vagnozzi. Over the last year and a half, the 23-year-old has established himself as the best player in the game with three Grand Slam wins and he has also been the top-ranked player in the game since June.
