Nick Kyrgios has praised Jannik Sinner after his Australian Open final win against Daniil Medvedev and highlighted a key improvement in the Italian game that won him the title.
A tenacious Sinner came up with some incredible fightback as he was trailed by two sets and sealed his maiden major title at the Melbourne Park.
The World No. 4 handed 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic his first loss at the Melbourne hardcourts since 2018 but on Sunday it looked like that he would settle for the runners-up silverware as Medvedev completely dominated him throughout the first two sets of the clash.
Sinner was not done yet and he gradually began to take control of his game with huge groundstrokes and precise hitting on the lines to register his first ever Grand Slam title with 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and 6-3 win.
2022 Wimbledon Finalist Kyrgios who was commentating for Eurosport and Discovery+ asserted on the work that fellow-Aussie coach Darren Cahill has put into Sinner’s serve in such a short time.
“You feel like this is the beginning of a very special journey. You can see more Grand Slams being added to that tally if he keeps playing like that,” said Kyrgios.
“I’ve said it about 14 times these two weeks; Darren Cahill made some amazing changes to the Sinner serve. I played him and thought that was a little hole in his game but now, dropping serve only twice in a Grand Slam is beyond a joke, the amount of concentration and discipline that takes.
“Jannik is an incredibly nice guy in the locker room. You always see him super professional, but he’s like a sponge. Ever since he came on tour that first match he played against Steve Johnson in Rome, the locker room was watching and thinking, ‘Who is this skinny guy, who has the crowd in the palm of his hand?’.
“We could already see the ball-striking. He’s like a sponge; every time he’s got good people around him trying to give him advice that he’s trying to incorporate into his game; always learning, always getting better. Just a good all-around good person.”
“I was there calling his matches towards the end of the year against Novak in Turin and then I saw him at the Davis Cup.
“He was improving all the time and the maturity he has is something I never had to get over the hump.
“I did predict he was going to be the new Slam winner in 2024. I thought maybe the US Open but now that he has got this one, he might be unstoppable.”