Maria Sharapova picked over Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner & others by their former coach Riccardo Piatti as his "most impressive student"
Riccardo Piatti named Maria Sharapova as the student he was most impressed by, picking the Russian over the likes of Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Ivan Ljubicic, Richard Gasquet and others.
Speaking in a recent interview with TV Monaco, Piatti admitted that his choice would be surprising to many. Piatti worked less than a year with the Russian, towards the end of her career in 2019 and 2020.
The Italian, however, heaped praise on Maria Sharapova, stating that he was delighted by the dedication she showed to her craft. He also said he came to appreciate her meticulous way of thinking.
"Unfortunately, the player who impressed me the most is the one I coached the least. I trained her for about 10 months. It is a woman, Maria Sharapova. I mainly trained men, Djokovic, Ljubicic and so on. But with Sharapova it was really very special because she was about to end her career and she wanted to know another side of tennis," Riccardo Piatti said.
"I had the opportunity to work with her and honestly we spent 10, 11 months together during which I was able to appreciate her way of thinking: You have priorities and you know them very well. She is very dedicated to her work. There was a lot of affinity with her and with her entire team," he added, in quotes collected by Tennis World Italia.
For the record, Piatti took Ljubicic from World No. 954 to World No. 3, trained Novak Djokovic during his formative years, and then took Gasquet and Milos Raonic to World No. 9 and World No. 3 respectively. Sinner was also coached by Riccardo Piatti until 2022.
"Maria Sharapova is the only player with whom I have not achieved good results, but she is the one with whom I felt most at ease" - Riccardo Piatti
Riccardo Piatti said during the interview that it was strange that he and Maria Sharapova did not achieve many big results during their partnership, seeing as she was the one with whom he felt "most at ease." The Italian expressed mild disappointment about that.
"Unfortunately we didn't get any results, which is a bit disappointing. strange because she is the only player with whom I have not achieved good results, but she is the one with whom I felt most at ease," Piatti said.
Sharapova retired from tennis in February 2020, losing to Donna Vekic in the first round at the Australian Open in her final career match.