Gilles Cervara didn't directly accuse Gilles Simon of ruining Daniil Medvedev but hinted that adding the former French tennis star to the Russian's caused some troubles which they hadn't been able to resolve.
In case you missed it, Medvedev confirmed this week that his long-time partnership with Cervara came to an end. When they started working in 2017, the Russian was still trying to establish himself as an ATP player and make a name for himself. Needless to say, their relationship was a massive success since the 29-year-old made multiple Grand Slam finals - won the 2021 US Open - and reached the world No. 1 spot.
After winning five titles through the first five months of 2023, Medvedev him a slump and didn't win any titles in the remainder of the year. The start of 2024 didn't go well either and that's when the former world No. 1 decided to add Simon - who retired in 2022 - to his team. Not only that bringing the former world No. 6 didn't help the Russian any titles, but his results started getting worse. All of that led to the 2021 US Open champion ditching the former French player at the start of this season.
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Cervara: Working with Simon caused 'static disruptions...' We didn't manage to recover from that
"Working with Gilles Simon caused what I called static,' disruptions, and afterward we tried to restore thingsbut recovery was difficult. Id even say it didnt succeed. At that time, postAustralia after Simons departure, we tried to rebuild and start from scratch," Cervara told Tennis Majors.
"In tennis terms, it was all very sluggish. Im not saying hes playing great now, but he has resources. I believe with what he will put in place, his level can come back quickly. After Australia, we went into reconstruction. That phase dragged into the whole seasonwe never got back on the winning track."
In the same interview, Cervara admitted that he felt the end was near, especially after Medvedev lost to Benjamin Bonzi in the US Open first round.
