“Alcaraz and Sinner had Nadal and Djokovic as goals. It was all about how they could beat them,” says renowned coach Riccardo Piatti as he shares his method and his thoughts on today’s game

What are they all coming to Bordighera for? The answer is easy when you know tennis: It’s for Riccardo Piatti. Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, or Ivan Ljubicic went to him when they were at the start of their journey. Milos Raonic and Richard Gasquet when they wanted to reach another level in their careers. And Maria Sharapova trusted him with the last hope of a return to the top. The list is long. Players who make their way to the Piatti tennis centre trust the Piatti method because the results have spoken for decades now. They also trust the team he has created and that regularly works with some of the best players of the ATP and WTA Tours.

Piatti loves to see the achievements of his players through the years, but what he still loves more than the Grand Slam titles is working with young players. With them, he gets the time he needs to work and a chance to build a strong basis that they will be able to thrive with ot without him. Piatti, when you speak with him, sounds more like a teacher, actually. The Italian loves the process and the journey as much or more than the results. And so he keeps teaching. Recently, it’s, of course, his work with Jannik Sinner that has made waves: The World No.1 is the most recent example of the Piatti way, starting when he was 13 and leaving when he was 20 after entering the Top 10. Here, he shares his love of the method and his thoughts on today’s game, including why Sinner like Alcaraz were built as an answer to Nadal and Djokovic.

I was talking to a coach the other day, and he was like, “Oh, but you see all the players that have worked with Piatti, how good they got? No secret.” So I'm wondering again: Is there a Piatti method? 

(He laughs) I opened the center in 2017, and I thought of it as an application of the approach I had all my life. I wanted a house to teach tennis first and to build young players’ games. I’ve done that all my life. I started with Renzo Furlan, coaching him for 17 years, and then worked with Ivan Ljubicic for 17 years. That is what I like about tennis: To create a good base for a professional player. 

Do you feel the game and the players have evolved so much lately that you had to adjust the method? 

Yes, totally. The rules of tennis aren’t changing, but tennis is changing. Technique is still very important, but for example, in 1991, I went to Australia alone with five players, but nowadays, one coach has five people on the team. It’s completely different. Tennis is changing in the way you need to build the young players. 

It’s not easy because with this kind of calendar, it’s very difficult for the mind to recover.

Would you say you're one of the last coaches who is putting a lot of importance on technique? 

No, no, no. I hope not! (He laughs) I hope not! I like to work with the video a lot, and so I have a lot of material about all the players that I’ve had, and you can see the process and the progress. When they are younger, you need to teach them things differently than when they’re older and stronger, with more options to make changes. I love this process where you go step by step about what’s needed at each step. I’m also 66, and so I have a lot of experience to use to help these kids.

You've seen so many generations of players: has the game changed since the Big 4 or the Serena and Venus Williams, or even Maria Sharapova, era?

The game has changed: it’s faster. Also, talking about this era isn’t going too far into the past. But I don’t know if the change is that big from that era to today, actually. If we talk about this era, then the big change was that they were playing every month. But when I was coaching Ljubicic, for example, we had a long period of preparation, like ten weeks in November and December. In ten weeks, the coach, the physio, and the fitness trainer can build a lot of things and make changes. Now, it’s very difficult to do because they keep playing, and so this is why nowadays, the teams are much bigger and need to work throughout the year. And especially when they are out of a tournament, they need to keep working.

It’s not easy because with this kind of calendar, it’s very difficult for the mind to recover. Before, you knew that at the end of October, you were on holiday, you were going to relax your mind and then get back to what you needed to work on, like changing a racquet, a grip, or something. Players were relaxed at home. But the generations have changed too, and today, they’re also different because they’ve grown up with their phone and social media, and so they live their life a different way. It’s a mistake to compare too much because you need to adjust to this new mentality where all of this – not having much time – feels normal. I personally prefer to get more practice time than tournament time to build something, and that’s why I prefer working with young players because you have long periods of work to decide what you want to do and to focus on explaining what the player will need in the future instead of focusing on the results.

SINNER and djokovic are both very clear about what they need to do.

Would you say that, let's say, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic play the same brand of tennis?

Actually, it’s that Alcaraz and Sinner had Nadal and Djokovic as goals. It was all about how they could beat them. My goal when I was coaching Jannik, and because I coached Djokovic back in the day, was to find how Jannik could beat Djokovic. I was watching Nole a lot, I worked with him, and so the idea is always to find someone who can beat a guy like this. I didn’t have an opportunity to coach Nadal or Federer, or the process would have been different. But the idea is always the same, and now it’d be to find a young player who in eight to ten years can beat Alcaraz or Sinner. Sinner, if you compare to Djokovic, has a similar technique and movement, but I think his shots are now stronger than Nole. Of course, Nole is older now, but I think Jannik here has something more.

So you build on greatness, then. So, the next generation needs to build on whoever is currently dominating and improve it.

Yes, absolutely. You need to find someone. Obviously, everybody is watching them, but it’s not all about the technique: it’s also about the mental approach, the physical approach. Everything needs to come together, but you need to think about how you can beat these guys. That’s the mindset you need to have.

I watched an interview where you said that mentally, Sinner was a lot like Djokovic…

They’re very different but also very similar in a way. I think Jannik is stronger than Novak now because he’s younger. Sometimes I forget how Novak was when he was younger, but what is clear is that he went through a lot of tough situations with having Roger and Rafa in front of him. But yes, mentally, they’re both very strong. And when I talk about a strong mind, I mean they’re both very clear about what they need to do. They immediately understand what’s needed, and they do it.

the most important thing is to explain what they can do in the long term.

Is it tricky for you because everybody coming to you thinks you’re going to turn them into the next Djokovic, Ljubicic, Raonic, or Sinner?

No, no, no! Because everybody is different, has a good potential, and because the most important thing is for me to explain what I think they can do in the long term and how we’re going to work to get there. Long-term is the key here. For example, with French player Gabriel Debru – bad luck, he got injured right now (left wrist) because he was training very well this winter – we need to be ready when he gets to 22 or 23 years old. He’s quite young (19) and has a lot of potential to become a very good player, especially because he’s quite open-minded and has a strong mindset. Now we have the time to build a stronger game for him, and I really think that, especially on clay, he can become a very good player.

Talking about very good players, Italian tennis has been booming the past few years. Has it been a surprise for you, or were you expecting it to happen?

You are surprised when Roger Federer and Martina Hingis win, coming from Switzerland. I was working with the Italian Federation in the past, and, like France, they had a lot of clubs. But at some point, you need to set the goals to become World No.1, to win a Grand Slam title, a medal at the Olympic Games, to be Top 10, to win the Davis Cup or the BJK Cup. These are the goals a federation needs to have. And then what the Italian federation did very well was working with the tournaments to give a chance to all the Italian players to compete at home and to the coaches to start to understand they also needed to believe that it’s impossible that someone born in France, Switzerland, Austria like Thomas Muster or Croatia like Ivan Ljubicic or Goran Ivanisevic can do it but not Italians.

So the Italian success is not surprising now; it’s the fact that it wasn’t happening anymore that was wrong. Now, they can again compete with the other European countries that are very good. But now we’re talking about Italy because we have a lot of players, sure, and also because we have Sinner. But if you take Sinner out, then we have the same level as France. France right now only misses a Sinner.

The thing is, as always, how to get a player like this? Can you even build a player like this? Isn’t there a part of luck and special talent you cannot control? 

The only luck is that these people arrive in a place that can help their potential. You need to pay attention to everybody and make sure you find a good place to help and develop their talent.

the Italian success is not surprising now; it’s the fact that it wasn’t happening anymore that was wrong.

It’s tough nowadays to get patient enough people who will also let you the time to work…

Yes, and especially because we need that time when they’re young. And we shouldn’t put a lot of focus on the results at this stage. It’s the time to educate them to work at becoming better. Usually, with my young players, when they finish a match, they go directly to practice again. Winning or losing that match, it’s the same; they’re going to practice again the same day. I don’t care about the results. I only care about the forehand and the backhand being good or not that day and so about what we need to work on. You need to educate them so they understand that every day, they need to improve. If you watch Nadal or Federer throughout the years, you can see that from their first final to the last, they became totally different players. I often watched Federer’s first final in Marseille (2000, lost to Marc Rosset), and he was a totally different player at the end of his career. People say Roger was such a talent, was born like this, but it’s not true: He worked a lot, he changed a lot. That’s the mentality players need to have.

That’s what the Big 4 was famous for: they kept improving even when they were already at the top. 

Yes, of course. I agree. And also, the thing is that when I’d coach a professional player, I wouldn’t take the top players as models. Sometimes we make that mistake, and even more today with watching players on YouTube, for example, and trying to copy this forehand or whatever. Even these top players need to improve, so I’m not thinking about a model to follow; I’m thinking about improving what they already have.

Do you sometimes look back at all the players you coached who became huge names of the game, and even at Italian tennis, as a part of your legacy? Is there a special pride there?

Yes, but for me, tennis is an international sport, and even if I was working with the Italians, I also worked a lot with international players. But maybe I helped the Italian coaches by representing a goal they could achieve. What I hope I built and so will leave at the tennis centre is firstly a method to teach tennis and then a model of how you need to work together as a team. I have worked with the same fitness trainer (Dalibor Sirola who worked with, among many, Alexander Zverev, Milos Raonic, Jannik Sinner, Maria Sharapova, Borna Coric) and physio (Claudio Zimaglia who has been seen with Novak Djokovic, Sharapova, Marta Kostyuk, Jannik Sinner) for twelve or fourteen years. My model is me working together with a team, and with a mental preparation team too, for the player. But the player needs to be independent: They cannot depend on us for everything. It’s like raising a child: You explain everything, and then one day, they’re leaving home. It’s what’s normal here because on the court, you need to be independent.

Well, it’s interesting because it’s actually what happened with Jannik Sinner… You said this year that it had been hard for you but that you also think he made the right choice. How do you look back at it now?

You know, two years before we stopped, I told him that when he’d become good, I would like to find someone else to help him. But first, he needed to become good. (He laughs). And then, of course, he stopped, but I think he made a really good choice, especially with hiring Darren Cahill. The rest of the team is also doing a good job. But this is a part of life, it’s not a problem and I’m very happy about what we did for eight years for him. We had a very clear mind about what to do. Of course, everything, including the pressure, started to get bigger when he started to play on the Tour, and I always tried to protect the team. And then in 2021, he was ranked 9th in the world, but I still explained to to him that during this period it doesn’t matter if he makes a lot of mistakes because with every match he’s going to lose the important thing would be to not lose again in the same way next time. It was part of educating him. When he started to play on the ATP, I told him that after 150 matches he would be Top 10, and he was number 9 in Vienna after 139 matches. And after, I told him you need another 100 matches to win a Grand Slam title. Then, of course, he won. He always had the potential to do that.

I’m very happy about what we did for eight years for Sinner.

How does it feel to see him achieving all these things, as not so long ago he was a 13-year-old kid at your academy?

For me, it always felt quite normal that he could do all of this. It was like when I saw Djokovic. I worked one year with Novak while I was working with Ivan Ljubicic, who was a long-term project for me. But in my mind, watching Novak, I was already seeing everything he could achieve. I had the same feeling about Goran Ivanisevic, thinking he’d win a lot of things and, sure, he won Wimbledon and that’d be enough for everybody, but I thought he’d win more. And so, watching Jannik, in my mind, I knew everything could happen.

You’ve built all your coaching career on long-term work and vision with the players. Yet, nowadays, many coaches say they’re not given the time anymore as they’ll be fired if there’s not enough winning. Is it becoming tougher to be a good coach out there? 

(He laughs) If they’re coming to me and so they are paying me, then I need to explain something to them. I need to be clear. Of course, things are different now as there are parents, managers, and federations that can create a lot of distractions. And then it’s difficult. I’m joking a lot with Renzo Furlan that I was very lucky when coaching him because I had no experience, but there was no phone, no internet, and everything that I told you, you believed it because nobody could tell the opposite! Today, there are a lot of people that are making players confused. Then the coach needs to be clear about how they want to develop the tennis. And then, of course, the players need to follow the coaches. For example, I love to put young players in different situations: I work with a young Indian player that is quite good, Manas Dhamne (17), who’s been there for four years already, but he has never seen clay. So I told his manager I wanted him to play all the clay season because that’s where he’s going to improve, and I don’t care if he’s not winning. Of course, the player wants to play on hardcourt or indoors instead, but I don’t care, and I’m very strict about that. That’s it.

Yet, it's tougher and tougher to tell them the truth, no? 

It’s tough, but it’s correct to tell. The truth helps them to grow. If someone comes to you and says that you do something wrong and it’s true, it’s very important.

There's so much more money in tennis that I guess it’s tough to tell these young players that they will lose matches for like six months, and we don’t care because it will pay off later…. 

Yes, you’re right. But also, there are a lot of players to coach… (He smiles) It’s not like there’s only one player, and everybody needs to follow him. A lot of players can play well. You need to find someone who believes and follows you in all approaches. But again, you need to explain. One example: During the pandemic, I was watching all the finals of the big tournaments, and I brought Jannik home, but not to show him these matches between Djokovic and Nadal or Djokovic and Federer when these guys were playing well, but when they were playing bad. Not well. I told him not to believe they were winning because they were playing well, but to understand that they were winning because they were going through the bad moments. You need to explain this kind of situation. These kinds of players know when they play bad (He laughs), but if they accept to play bad, they find a way to win. Young players don’t know themselves enough yet to get there, and so they think the shots are the most important thing and not the moments. Many of them have strong shots, but they don’t know how to use them depending on the moments of the match. And so that’s why they lose.

Now, SInner can prepare to win the other three Slams.

Talking about Jannik, are you surprised at the harsh reaction from the other players regarding his current situation? Weren’t you expecting more support? 

Listen, I know a lot of the players. They’re never all together; it’s impossible. If you ask me if I’m surprised, the answer is no. I’m not surprised. Again, because I know the players, if it had happened to them, they’d have said it was a disaster. But if it happens to someone else, then it’s not a disaster. That’s how their mentality works. Then again, it’s an individual sport, so uniting everybody is difficult.

Do you think it will hurt Jannik in a way or that he doesn't care at all? 

It’s a long time since I’ve been in contact with him, but I think that in his mind he knows what he needs to do. He knows he needs to focus on what he needs to do and not on what other people are talking about. But also, with today’s schedule where recovery, especially after the Australian Open, has become complicated, it makes me think about Sinner’s situation and feeling that it’s actually quite good for him to have to stop now. Now, he can prepare to win the other three Slams.

I remember that other important moment in his career, when he won the Next Gen Finals (2019), but a year later, his level physically was still not ready. Then Covid hit, unfortunately, but at the same time, it suddenly gave Jannik the possibility to work a lot. He was in Monte Carlo, working on his fitness three times a day and then also playing tennis every day. And then at the end of the year he reached the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros. If he hadn’t had that training period, it would have been more difficult because, of course, he’d have wanted to compete – and also, of course, you need to put this into competition – but when you’re in competition all the time, it’s not possible to build. So that part of his career was quite important, and now I think this moment is becoming very important for opening a new era for him.

What advice would you give anyone wanting to be a coach these days?

Love this sport. Have passion for this sport.

And for your centre, for your academy, in 10 years, what would you like it to be? 

To have more and more professional players coming from here, that these young players stay there for three or four years and then can become professionals. That would be a success. And then I would like to open the same approach outside of Italy, to see it spread in a few countries. With the same culture, because sometimes what is needed is just another way to look at things. However, the goal will always remain the same: focusing on building the basis for young players so they become good later.