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Daniil Medvedev has split with Gilles Cervara, his coach of eight years, following his ignominious first-round exit from the U.S. Open.
The Russian former world No. 1 and his longtime French coach have finally parted ways after almost a decade together. Even Medvedev himself appears to have lost track of the time, judging from his post on social media announcing the split after another dispiriting first-round loss in a Grand Slam.
“Thank you Gilles,” Medvedev wrote with a heart emoji. “Amazing 8-10 years together, 20 titles, world number 1 but most importantly a lot of fun moments and memories that will stay with us forever. I am grateful to you for guiding me through all these years and let’s see what life brings us in the future.”
As tennis partnerships go, the relationship between Medvedev and Cervara lasted an eternity.
When Cervara and Medvedev first got together, Medvedev was a teenager considered the least promising of a young crop of Russian talent that included Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev. He has turned out to be the best of the lot, one of a small group of players since the Big Three of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to both win a Grand Slam title and hold the No. 1 world ranking. Medvedev captured the U.S. Open title in 2021, with a win that deprived Novak Djokovic of the calendar Grand Slam.
Medvedev, who is as analytical off the court as he is temperamental on it, has fallen on tough times since then. His once reliable and often lethal serve has become attackable as it has lost velocity and quality, while his counterpunching approach to the game — which once redefined baseline strategies, and made Djokovic and Rafael Nadal evolve their own strategies — appears somewhat out of step with a new generation of players who are experts at first-strike tennis.
For the second consecutive Grand Slam, Medvedev lost in the first round to Benjamin Bonzi, a middling French player, in a match that made headlines last week when the 29-year-old threw a tantrum on match point in the third set when Bonzi was awarded an extra serve. Medvedev then staged a dramatic comeback from a two-set deficit but lost in five and sat motionless on the side of the court as Bonzi gave his post-match interview.
He flew home to Monaco the next day and did some soul-searching with his wife about what it might take to regain his form and return to the top of the sport, ultimately coming to a conclusion that everyone on the team had been pondering as the sub-standard results piled up..
In addition to parting ways with Cervara, Medvedev is also in the market for a new fitness trainer. He will no longer work with Eric Hernandez, another member of his team who has been with him for the better part of a decade. Medvedev has not named any replacements. He plans to speak with numerous candidates before making a choice. He will be outside the top 15 when he returns to the tour, his lowest spot since 2019.
(Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)