To face competition from Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev has decided to expand his staff with a new Frenchman.
Current fourth player in the world, Daniil Medvedev has won the US Open once, in 2021, and has reached the final of the Australian Open three times. At 28 years old, the 1.98 meter player has a particular technique, allowing him to find particularly unexpected angles from the baseline. If we saw him quite naturally taking over from the Big Three (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic) at the end of the race, he is now being challenged by a younger generation. A blatant illustration of this new competition: his defeat at the start of the year at the Australian Open, where Sinner defeated him five sets in the final.
To try to gain the upper hand over the Sinner and other Alcaraz at the head of an ever more demanding circuit, Daniil Medvedev has been accompanied for several years in the staff box by the Frenchman Gilles Cervara. The Russian, who grew up in Monaco, won around fifteen tournaments on the ATP circuit with his French coach, including a grand slam. But in recent months, he has added a new face to his clan. Renowned for being a cerebral player, who tactically outwits his opponents, the current world number 4 has enlisted the services of former French tennis player Gilles Simon. A sure bet to prepare for your matches and take another step forward.
Also known for his tactical and exhausting play for the opponent, Gilles Simon retired at the end of 2022 and reached the peak of his career at sixth place in the world. It is first of all for his ability to read the opponents’ game that Medvedev chose to work with Gilles Simon. “When we started working together, I saw that he understood so much about tennis. A lot of players don’t even think about that […]. He can explain in words why he saw such a thing on the court. It’s very strong, few players can do it,” praised the person.
But if the Russian wanted to work with Gilles Simon, it is also because Daniil did not like playing against the Frenchman at all. Despite the differences in career dynamics when they faced each other, Simon actually beat Medvedev three times against only one defeat in their confrontations. “I thought of Gilles, because he knew how to play against me. It’s a fact, I hated facing him, because when I was on the court, he knew what I was going to do. He knew how to beat me, which is not an easy thing. That’s the first thing, he can tell me how he did it, and we can work on that,” Medvedev also said.
If the Frenchman is not physically present at all the tournaments, he prepares the meetings beforehand, and should be in the Russian’s box for the next grand slam tournaments.