Darren Cahill is currently focusing on more success with Jannik Sinner, but it wasn’t too long ago when his main focus revolved around Andre Agassi.
Agassi is the new Team World Laver Cup captain, taking over the role from fellow American John McEnroe.
The venture comes after a hugely successful playing career from Agassi, during which he won eight Grand Slam titles.
Agassi enjoyed a great rivalry with Pete Sampras, with the former retiring in 2006 with 60 ATP Tour titles to his name.
American legend Agassi enjoyed a successful stint with Brad Gilbert as his coach, with Cahill then taking over from the latter.
Darren Cahill says Andre Agassi sometimes played into the hands of his opponent
Agassi became the oldest player to be crowned world number one under the guidance of Cahill, with the Australian now sharing insight into their partnership.
“One of the things that we really concentrated on, and this was more of an extension of Brad Gilbert…” Cahill said on the Tennis Insider Club podcast. “Brad spent eight years with Andre and they had a remarkable career together.
“They won six majors together. Eight years is a long time and it got to a point where Andre needed a fresh voice.
“I came in and continued the work of Brad’s in that sometimes Andre would play into the hands of his opponent.
“Andre always wanted to walk onto the court and play his style of tennis because he knew that his style of tennis was the best style of tennis in the world, when he played well and nobody could beat him and he didn’t care what the other person did, he just wanted to go through that opponent.
“But sometimes there are players that play well when you give them your best stuff and he had issues against certain players where if we sent him on to the court and said jump the ball down the middle a bit, use the slice backhand, play with a little bit of height, don’t hit the big first serve, play with a bit more kick, get the ball outside the pocket, they move well into the corners but they are not so good in the middle of the court, there is all sorts of stuff you can do.
“And Andre started winning these matches and would walk off the court and say I didn’t feel good about today’s match.
“It was like why? What was the score. [And he’d say] it was 6-2, 6-2. And the last time you played this person it was 7-6 in the third, three hours and you walked off the court saying I played really good today. You are making life tough for yourself sometimes! He had to get smarter as he got older.
“And also he was a 32-year-old and he had to protect his body a bit more, so whenever he could cut a corner in terms of getting away from that physicality we would take it. So that was my main role with Andre, to make him a smarter, more effective tennis player.”
Andre Agassi, Jannik Sinner and Lleyton Hewitt rise to number one under Darren Cahill
Cahill and Sinner started their hugely successful partnership in July 2022, with the Italian winning all three of his Grand Slam titles since then.
He emerged victorious at the 2024 Australian Open and US Open, before successfully defending his title in Melbourne last month.
Sinner also won the ATP Finals last year, with a total of eight ATP Tour titles going his way throughout 2024.
His rise to number one continued a superb trend from Cahill, who also helped Lleyton Hewitt become the second youngest ever number one.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
