Darren Cahill reveals how close Jannik Sinner came to pulling out of the Australian Open

Everyone knew Jannik Sinner was sick during his run to the Australian Open title, but his Australian coach has confirmed just how bad it was.

Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner’s coach Darren Cahill has revealed just how close the world No.1 came to missing his fourth round match with illness.

Cahill revealed Sinner was “white as a sheet” and “really crook” before and during the match before recovering in the days after to take his second-straight crown.

Rumours that Sinner was battling pneumonia swept Melbourne Park in the lead-up to his quarter-final clash with Australian Alex de Minaur after the Italian was shown visibly shaking during his previous win over Holger Rune.

Sinner recorded that four-set win having cancelled all practices in the lead-up and his Australian coach Cahill, who has caught the same “bug” that swept through their team, revealed exactly what happened.

Cahill confirmed Sinner had his “vitals” taken by medical staff during his clash with Rune and was “lucky” to get through, aided by several breaks, with the match played in the heat of the day.

“I’m crook now, I picked it up from him. His other coach was really crook the two days after he was crook. We’ve all been through it,” Cahill said

Jannik Sinner physically shaking during his match against Rune at Australian Open

He told his team he wasn’t able to ‘move to his left’

Visibly struggling and hasn’t been the same for the last two sets

Likely adrenaline combined with not feeling 100%
pic.twitter.com/0RPDSxTI2T

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 20, 2025

“He was pretty bad. We didn’t know if he was going to step on the court. It was that bad. We knew from the day before he wasn’t feeling great, so he got to bed early.

“We cancelled his practice, I think he was scheduled to play at about 2.30pm in the afternoon, in the heat of the day. We had a warm-up booked for the morning and cancelled that and moved it back to midday, and when he turned up to the courts he looked as white as a sheet.

“We cancelled all the practices, went to the doctor, they gave him some gels to get the energy up. He rested up, he took an ice bath to get him going and we threw him on to the court cold.”

Medical time-outs and another break after a Sinner serve broke the net proved crucial in his ability to get past Rune, before going on to smash de Minaur en route to a second Australian Open title.

“He got a little bit lucky in that match, it was midway through the third set, he brought out the trainers to get his temperature taken and his vitals taken,” Cahill told SEN.

“They had trouble doing it on the court so they did it off the court, so he get got some extra rest and I think it was about 10 minutes by the time he got onto the court and he walked straight past us and we could see the colour in his face had changed a bit.

Italy's Jannik Sinner has a medical time-out while playing against Denmark's Holger Rune. Picture: Martin Keep / AFP

“He was white when he walked off and had a bit of colour back in his face when he walked back on.

“Then 20 minutes later he hit a big first serve and broke the net, so he got another 20 minutes to go back inside. He got a little bit lucky in that match, but once he got through he felt much better the next day and away he went.”

Sinner holds both the US Open and Australian Open titles and could become just the third men’s player in history to hold all four titles in the one year should he go on to win the French Open and Wimbledon.

Originally published as Darren Cahill reveals how close Jannik Sinner came to pulling out of the Australian Open