Daniil Medvedev and Gilles Cervara have agreed to return for an eighth season together on the circuit. But as the French coach has previously indicated, he will be travelling a little less this year alongside the Australian Open finalist.
The man who will accompany Medvedev to tournaments when Cervara is unavailable is a former player who has long been thought of as a potential coach: Frenchman Gilles Simon, aged 39.
A former world No 6 back in 2009, Simon hung up his racquets in 2002 and has already started working with Medvedev. After the week’s break that the Russian gave himself after the Australian Open, Simon shared the court with Medvedev in sessions supervised as usual by Gilles Cervara and Eric Hernandez at the Mouratoglou Academy.
“It was interesting and enriching to see the game through different eyes,” Cervara told Tennis Majors.
According to our information, in addition to Dubai, there are already plans for Simon to join Medvedev in Madrid and at the Rolex Paris Masters this year. Cervara will be at Indian Wells and Miami as usual.
Consultant? Assistant coach? Co-trainer? Simon’s exact title in the technical environment built by Gilles Cervara since 2017 hasn’t been formally fixed, and Medvedev’s new training structure will fine-tune its operation over the coming weeks and months.
“Gilles Simon’s title doesn’t matter,” says Cervara. “What will count is the quality of our work, the harmony of our contributions, and the results. That’s what’s important.”
It was Daniil Medvedev himself who came up with the idea of enlisting Gilles Simon to add to his team at the end of last year. Medvedev remembered the Frenchman’s tactical intelligence, who wreaked havoc on the circuit until his 36th birthday.
