Gilles Cervara has officially confirmed that he is back on the Tour coaching after announcing that he has started working with rising American star Nishesh Basavareddy.
In the second week of 2025, Basavareddy drew attention to himself when he reached the Auckland semifinal as a qualifier in only his second ATP main-draw appearance. A couple of days later, the 19-year-old impressively took a set off Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open first round before losing to the record 24-time Grand Slam champion in four sets.
Basavareddy, who spent time between the ATP and the Challenger Tour in 2025, also broke into the top-100 this year when he achieved a career-high ranking of No. 99 in June.
Now, Basavareddy is set to work with coach Cervara, who started working with Daniil Medvedev in 2017 and guided the Russian to a Grand Slam title and the world No. 1 ranking.
Cervara on working with Basavareddy: Thrilled about this new amazing project and adventure
Im thrilled about this project with a healthy player and environment, eager to build something after many months without a structure. Hes a young man who isnt confined to the United States and wants to work with a French coach. Its a great adventure. There are quite a few things to accomplish in relation to my coaching profile," Carvara told L'Equipe.
The confirmation of the Cervara and Basavareddy partnership comes just days after Medvedev revealed to Russian media that the French coach had already found a new player to work with.
"I keep in touch with my former coach a little, but it will never be daily again. It just so happens that I already know who he'll be coaching, because we'll most likely be training with that player during the preseason. And we'll see each other on the Tour," Medvedev said last week.
As mentioned above, Cervara made Medvedev one of the best players in the world. Basavareddy will certainly be hoping that the French coach can also do something similar with him.
