Legendary coach highlights one aspect that will ‘pay huge dividends’ for Jannik Sinner on grass

Jannik Sinner on grass

Did you know Jannik Sinner is yet to win a grass-court title or even reach a final?

To be fair to the world No 1, only a handful of tournaments are played on the surface each year and he has a 12-8 (60%) win-loss record on grass with his best displays a run to the semi-final at Wimbledon last year and to the quarter-final the previous year.

Sinner, though, has made major improvements to his game in the past 12 months and that has already been evident at the Australian Open where he won his maiden Grand Slam and in his surge to the top of the ATP Rankings.

The next big step would be to get his game to click on grass and top coach Paul Annacone, who mentored grass-court greats Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, believes he has upped his game on his second serve.

Sinner was third in the win rate for second serves in 2023 with his 56 per cent putting him behind Novak Djokovic (57.9%) and Carlos Alcaraz (56.3%). And he is moving the needle on that figure as he is 56.7 per cent for the past 52 weeks.

“He made a big improvement on second-serve success rate,” Annacone told the official ATP website. “His first-serve speeds and accuracy are up.

“So I think when you look at those two things, and you look at his ability to return aggressively, and also first-strike tennis, power tennis, [playing] aggressively in return games… I think that’s going to be a catalyst to drive his success on the grass.”

How Jannik Sinner can emulate Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray with feat that eluded Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal

The 11 ATP players with the most grass-court titles: Roger Federer top, Novak Djokovic joint-fifth

Tennis Channel commentator Annacone, though, warns that it is important for players not to change their natural too much for different surfaces.

He feels the Italian’s height puts him at a disadvantage to Alcaraz as the Spaniard can generate more power, but Sinner has other weapons.

“Even though he’s moving much, much better, he’s a tall, lanky guy,” he said of the Italian. “I actually think that’s one of the disadvantages, maybe, compared to a mover like Alcaraz who is lower to the ground. He’s much more powerful, he’ll probably move a little bit more nuanced and also subtly more balanced than Jannik will on a grass court, I think.

“So based on that, you really have to be good off of the first strike. So when you look at [Sinner’s] improvements in the serve, in particular, that’s a huge bonus. He’s a terrific returner. So that’s standard and that is the status quo, but I think serve is going to pay huge dividends for him on the grass this year.”