The former world No. 1 Roddick pushed back hard against the muted reception that followed the news Magnus Norman will join Sinner’s camp for the 2027 season.
“Probably the best coach on earth, along with the Cahill’s and whoever over the last 15 years, that never gets mentioned ever, and it’s a crime, is Magnus Norman,” Roddick said on his Served podcast.
“This is a no-brainer hire for Sinner. We are all idiots for not even thinking about it, like, all the time.”
Those comments followed The Times’s exclusive, first reported on 26 October, that the men’s world No. 1 had chosen Norman to replace Darren Cahill. Cahill, who began working with Sinner in 2022, is set to step away from coaching at the end of the current season. Simone Vagnozzi is expected to remain on the team, with Norman arriving as a senior coaching voice alongside him.
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A playing career shorter than the trophy cabinet suggests
Norman peaked at world No. 2 in June 2000 and finished runner-up to Gustavo Kuerten at Roland-Garros the same year, before hip and knee problems forced him out of the game while still in his twenties.
His name carries greater weight on the coaching side. He guided Robin Soderling to two French Open finals and then built a long partnership with Stan Wawrinka from 2013, a collaboration that produced three Grand Slam titles: the 2014 Australian Open, the 2015 French Open and the 2016 US Open. The ATP named him Coach of the Year in 2016.
That is the body of work Roddick believes the tennis conversation keeps leaving out when it talks about elite coaching.
Hired at a delicate moment
The endorsement lands with Sinner off the tour. The Italian ended his 2026 season on 6 October to treat inflammation in his knee, and will miss the ATP Finals in Turin from 15 to 22 November, an event he had won in each of the two previous years.
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“Me together with the doctors have decided that I need a course of treatment for my knee, which means that the 2026 season is officially over,” Sinner said in a statement at the time.
His team said the treatment was timed to give him enough runway to begin preparations for 2027, the season in which Norman is scheduled to formally link up with him.
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