The handover is unusual in its symmetry. Magnus Norman has spent most of the past decade turning Stan Wawrinka into a player capable of beating Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer at Grand Slam level. He now takes charge of a world No. 1 who has already done much of that himself.

The switch, first reported by The Times and confirmed across multiple tennis outlets, puts Norman alongside Simone Vagnozzi on Sinner’s team from December. Vagnozzi stays on. Darren Cahill, who has worked with Sinner since July 2022, steps aside at the end of the season.

Five majors, then a knee that cut the year short

Under Cahill and Vagnozzi, Sinner won his first five Grand Slam titles and climbed to world No. 1, a ranking he has held for 95 weeks, including a run of 65 straight.

He has not played since Wimbledon. A right knee injury forced him off the Tour, and in a statement reported by Tennisnow, Sinner said he and his medical team had decided treatment was needed.

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“Me, together with the doctors, have decided that I need a course of treatment for my knee,” he told Tennisnow.

Cahill had been rumoured to retire at the end of 2025 but stayed on for the current campaign, which brought six titles and one major before the injury ended his season.

The coach who guided Wawrinka to three majors

Norman reached world No. 2 in 2000 and lost that year’s French Open final. Twelve ATP titles later he moved into coaching and co-founded the Good to Great Tennis Academy in Sweden.

With Robin Söderling, he engineered one of the most jarring runs of the modern era: the Swede’s 2009 fourth-round win over Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, which ended Nadal’s 31-match streak at the tournament. Söderling reached the final, lost to Roger Federer, and returned the next year to beat Federer in the quarters before losing the final to Nadal.

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With Wawrinka the record is more complete, as Sweden Herald notes: three Grand Slam titles across a partnership that began in 2013. The 2014 Australian Open came past Djokovic and Nadal, the 2015 French Open past Federer and Djokovic, the 2016 US Open past Djokovic again.

Basel is Wawrinka’s final tournament with Norman in his corner this week.

Sinner’s targeted comeback is the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia in December, with a return to the ATP Tour scheduled for the start of 2027.

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