THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 13, 2025

Darren Cahill

Simone Vagnozzi

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference for Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi. Questions, please.

Q. Darren, you started with Jannik at Wimbledon three years ago. Now you finally won Wimbledon. Are you happy of these three years? What do you think? What's the key?

DARREN CAHILL: 'Happy' would be an understatement I think after the last three years that he's had. Even three years ago when we came here and we started, we believed he had a pretty good game for grass. Had he won a grass court match before? I don't think. I'm want sure.

SIMONE VAGNOZZI: In quallies.

DARREN CAHILL: The way he plays, the way he serves, the way he moves, I think that once he learned to feel more comfortable moving on grass, we believed that he had a game that was really good for grass.

Then that particular year he actually pushed Novak in the quarterfinals. He got up a couple of sets. Then he played him two years later. We actually thought that the match that he lost in straight sets was maybe closer than the five-set loss because the last three sets were pretty easy for Novak.

But his game has been improving all the time, and his results have shown that. Yeah, to say that we are happy would be a massive understatement with what he's been able to achieve in the last couple of years. That's a great credit to him, to Jannik.

Q. After the Grigor match, how difficult was that for you both in the box and then after dealing with sort of the elbow, and how have you managed to get him to bounce back like this?

DARREN CAHILL: Great challenge for us actually, because he caught a break, no question about it. He was just getting his teeth into that match. Best of five, you never know what's going to happen.

We in the box still had great belief he was going to dig his way out of that hole, and we felt like he was just starting to play the way we wanted.

But anything can happen on grass. The way Grigor was playing, if he continued to play at that level, then yeah, he was a good chance to close it out.

But we in the box always had faith that he was going to get himself out of that match. But yes, he caught a break. We kept reiterating to him that Grand Slam, in men's tennis, it's seven matches, it's best-of-five. Nobody goes through a tournament without a hiccup, whether it be an injury or a little bit of luck or you get yourself out of an early round problem. Everybody has a story in a Grand Slam. Maybe this was going to be his story.

So take it for what it is, put it to one side, and his main job was to concentrate on his next opponent. If you beat the next opponent, then you move on, and you make the most of it.

He does that. It's the same way he approached his loss at Roland Garros. He saw it for what it was, understood that he played an incredible match at Roland Garros. He was beaten in the end by a better player.

Never played a better clay court match than what he played there. So he knew he was improving as a tennis player, and he was able to put it to one side and just focus on the next day. That's a pretty rare quality to have.

It's a great effort by Jannik.

Q. I just wondered, from the outside it feels like he's the absolute ultimate compartmentalizer in the fact that he could lose the French Open match that way and then be back so soon after. Is that just a natural thing? Has he developed that? Can you develop that?

SIMONE VAGNOZZI: It's tough, for sure. After Paris was tough. But we spoke a lot. We spoke that we was really proud what he did in Paris.

We came here with all the purpose to make a good tournament. It start really well. He had really good week of practice the week before, so we was really confident that he was able to play a good tournament here.

But for sure his mental strength is really strong. We are lucky to work with a guy like this that every day is going on the court with a right mentality, with a good attitude. So we are really proud of him.

Q. Talking about Jannik's emotions, I don't think we've ever seen him yell "Let's go" in a match or stand with his hands on his hips like he did in the second set. Does he show that emotion to you guys more, or was that maybe indicative today of how badly he wanted this one and how invested he was?

DARREN CAHILL: Today was important for many, many reasons. Carlos has had the wood over him for the last five matches. They've played amazing matches, and Jannik has had chances in maybe four of the five matches they've played to beat him. Hasn't been able to get the victory.

So today was important not just because it was a Grand Slam final, not just because it was Wimbledon, and not just because Carlos had won the last five matches against him. He needed that win today. So he knew the importance of closing this one out when he had the opportunities.

With that, I think you saw a bit more energy from him in the big moments and a bit more focus to knuckle down and make sure that when he had his nose in front, that he kept on closing the door against Carlos.

He did an amazing job with that today.

SIMONE VAGNOZZI: He was really brave today, so the important moment he was really brave.

DARREN CAHILL: We spoke about it. You can say them. Was it third set, 3-4, 30-All, second serve ace?

SIMONE VAGNOZZI: Yeah. That's the one break point return with the backhand down the line.

DARREN CAHILL: Today's match I think was a match of moments, of just who was going to step up in the big moment and make something happen. At Roland Garros it was Carlos, and today it was Jannik. So we could not be more proud of him.

Q. I think I was actually at his first courtside of his first Wimbledon match which was a quallies against Alex Bolt. Already then he looked very comfortable. What did you see in his game that makes him great on grass, and are there things that are different than what makes him great on hard courts, which everybody has known for a long time?

DARREN CAHILL: He lost that match, right?

Q. He lost 12-10 in the third.

DARREN CAHILL: He couldn't have been that comfortable.

Q. That match was great.

DARREN CAHILL: Alex is a great player. Lefty. He is tricky, for sure.

SIMONE VAGNOZZI: For sure he's moving great, Jannik. He can slide on grass, like on clay. He have great timing on the ball, so he can play from the baseline like he play on hard court. The last three years improve so much, the serve. Today I think he has a really, really good match with the serve, especially on the second serve. It's less attackable than before.

Today he made good variation with the drop shot, coming to the net. Probably the first two set he was not great on the net, but then he continues to be brave. And this one is, I think, that's why he have the title today.

Q. I wanted to ask about the rivalry with Carlos and preparation. Obviously tennis is not boxing. You have to prepare for every opponent, every possibility. However, these guys are meeting up quite frequently. How much of Jannik's training and preparation is geared around the idea of Carlos, Carlos' specific skill sets, which are quite unlike any other rival he has in the field, in this job of simultaneously preparing Jannik for tournaments but also a very clear rival?

DARREN CAHILL: I would say that we are preparing him for the field, not just for one player. Because if you prepare somebody for just one player, then other players are going to sneak up on you and cause you massive problems.

There's so many variations of styles of play today. The way he played against Carlos today is not going to work against Ben Shelton and won't work against Alexander Zverev. So you need to prepare a player to deal with all sorts of possibilities. But Carlos is a big focus, and both of those guys are pushing each other.

I would say that Jannik watches more Carlos matches than he does anybody else because he's fascinated with the improvements that are coming in his game, and he's pushing us as coaches to make sure that he's improving also as a tennis player as well.

So the rivalry is real. It's there. And hopefully it's going to be there and real for the next 10 or 12 years.

Q. How much of the mental calmness that we see from Jannik comes from him naturally, or how much do you guys focus on that with him outside much the court?

SIMONE VAGNOZZI: For sure he's naturally strong, but we work day by day with him also on this side because we can speak about technique tactically, but if you are not able to stay there with the right attitude, the right mentality stuff, then to execute the game like you want.

So we spoke a lot every day before the practice, before a match. Yeah, we take care about his mental, for sure.

Q. When did you last speak about Roland Garros? The final, was it something that you consciously didn't talk about after a period of time? When did you think he was definitely over that final?

DARREN CAHILL: So I could probably answer that because that's more my role, sort of getting into his head a little bit.

We didn't speak about Roland Garros within 24 hours after the match, because the way he played, the attitude that he had on court, the effort that he gave, it was faultless, and he was just beaten by a better player in the end.

We talked a little bit about his game, maybe being a little bit braver in the bigger moments. But beyond that, again, I know we keep saying it, but we could not have been more proud of the way he played across in Paris.

For us it was important to move forward as quickly as possible. And as Simone said, we've been with him for three, three and a half years now. The leading week to Wimbledon, The Championships, was the best practice week we've ever had with him as far as attitude, as far as form.

We don't normally care about practice sets and winning or losing. We're always working on the big picture and trying to become a better tennis player. But he was awesome in the practice week.

We knew we had something special coming in, but it's two weeks away, right? It's the Sunday, Monday of the tournament, start of the Monday of the tournament starting. You've got 14 days to sort of get this guy primed, and he was primed from the first round, ready to go.

We knew that he had already put that behind him. He was coming here and playing with a real purpose. I think you could see that from the first match that he played, that he wasn't carrying any baggage from Roland Garros.

That's not easy to do. It's easy for us to say that in words, to put it to one side, but for the player to wipe it away and be able to come here with the mentality that he had, is 100% credit to him.

Q. Simone, I'm curious what you were thinking after the first set.

SIMONE VAGNOZZI: I said to Darren that in Paris we won the first set, like Carlos won today the first set. So I said, Probably it's good sign (laughing).

DARREN CAHILL: I wasn't agreeing with him.

SIMONE VAGNOZZI: Don't worry, it's good sign.

No, for sure Jannik had good start, but Carlos play unbelievable four games. The only thing I said to Jannik after first set is to be less predictable, especially with the serve, because he was using just the wide serve or the T serve. It was not going into the body, never. He become a little bit more unpredictable, and for sure this helped Jannik to keep his serve a little bit easily in the first set.

But was always with the right confidence. I think he start the first three games not so clean, but then from this moment he start to play really good.

Q. Carlos came in and said he wasn't surprised at all that Jannik got over Roland Garros. People are going to say such a champion, of course, he was able to get over it. Seeing from inside, is there a moment that you were surprised how well mentally he found a way to cope with that because he's still really young at this level?

DARREN CAHILL: That's a really good question, and a question that we'll have trouble answering, because I wouldn't have coped. I think for most normal athletes that get into that position and have Love-40, 5-3 in the fourth set, match points to win Roland Garros, and certainly his year has been -- I don't know the right word to sum it up -- but it's been challenging for everybody involved.

Then to put himself in that position and miss out on it, yeah, it's a quality that he has as a person, and I put that back again, I speak about his parents all the time and his upbringing and his grounded upbringing and the way he treats the people around him.

He's a good man. He's a good, young fellow. Always has a smile on his face. The person that you see on the tennis court, this focus, this attention to detail, is not the same guy off the court. He's a fun-loving guy who is joking around all the time that just loves the company of the people around him. He's cooking. He's messing up stuff. He's making mistakes all over the place. We're laughing about it.

It's a good group of people. He has fun like any other 23-year-old has. But he has a mentality on the tennis court that is special, and that's why he and Carlos are doing what they're doing.

Q. Can you provide a little bit more insight about mental work that Jannik said himself in the ceremony. Did you work specially with a psychologist to get over the drama in Paris?

DARREN CAHILL: Actually, you can talk about Riccardo a little bit.

SIMONE VAGNOZZI: You can.

DARREN CAHILL: So our roles as coaches is not only the training, the technical, the tactical, the emotional. Our roles, and for any coach, whether you are coaching a football team, a basketball team, or a tennis team, because the tennis teams are getting bigger and bigger now, is to make sure that everybody treats everybody in the right manner inside the team, and the culture is good within inside the team.

I come from a football background. So my Australian Rules Football background is that we have to make sure that everybody is in line and everybody is staying in their lane, we're exchanging information, we're all patting each other on the back when we do something good, but there's open conversations where we feel like we can all improve.

This stuff happens day-to-day. There's a great saying, "Be brilliant in the basics." That's what Jannik is. We don't make it too complicated. We make sure that he understands how he's trying to become a better tennis player and where those improvements will come from.

Then we just go about doing it, and we do it day after day. We have repetitions that we do in the practice that are boring for people to look at, but we need them because we need to hone the skills to make sure that when he has break point in the fourth set and he hasn't taken one second serve backhand down the line, that he's got the confidence to do it and break serve, which he did.

So those little things are really important within a team. I think that's what helps build that mental strength and that belief and that knowledge that he knows that when the going gets a little bit tough, that all the work that he's done is going to help him get through it.

So building that belief gives him the confidence to execute.

Q. I know very good that Simone is trying to push you. Any chance you will reconsider your decision for the end of the season?

DARREN CAHILL: I don't want to answer this (smiling).

You know what, you just need to ask Jannik that. Ask Jannik. Are you guys going to be in the press conference with him?

Q. Yes.

DARREN CAHILL: God bless you (laughing).

Q. Darren, with all your experience in tennis, how highly do you rate this rivalry as a spectacle and the heights they're hitting and the quality as well?

DARREN CAHILL: So the quality of Roland Garros I think was one of the best matches I've ever seen in the 25 years I've been as a coach and as a player.

There's been some great matches, of course, but that one was special. The first game took, what, 12 minutes at Roland Garros. So we had five sets of that drama. It was one of the all-time great matches.

The rivalry I think is amazing already, and I think it can get better with both these players pushing each other. I do think there's some other younger players coming through that will punch their way through the door, so it won't just be a two-man show. There will be other players, which we look forward to as well and are excited about.

But it's difficult to compare this rivalry to what we've just had. It's been a golden age in tennis with Novak and Roger and Rafa and Andy. They dominated for 20 years. Incredibly selfish, they won all those Grand Slams. To win a Grand Slam back in those days, you had to beat one of them in the quarters, the other one in the semis, and another one in the final.

These guys still have a ways to go, but they've started incredibly well. I have fingers crossed that they're going to have a great 10 or 15 years to go, and they'll have some more amazing matches.

But I'm not going to compare them just yet to what we've just seen.