Gilles Simon new coach for Daniil Medvedev

© AFP

Guillaume Nonque

le 23/02/2024 à 20h09

2 min to read

Dubaï Medvedev Simon

Gilles Simon joined Daniil Medvedev's team this week. The Frenchman, who retired in November 2022 at the Paris Masters 1000, will support Gilles Cervera, who remains the Russian's head coach but wishes to spend fewer weeks on tour this year.

Simon will accompany Medvedev from next week in Dubai. A first test in real conditions after a first week of training. The two men already liked each other before they started working together and have a very similar tennis philosophy. In many ways, therefore, this collaboration seems an obvious choice.

Simon (in response to L'Equipe): "In fact, Daniil has understood everything. He's adapted his technique to what he wants to do. ''OK, I'm 2 metres tall but I want to play two metres behind the baseline.'' Or "Okay, I'm 2 metres tall, but I want to play sixty-stroke exchanges". That's what everyone should do! He's not permeable to dogma, he's got great strength of character.

His technique corresponds to who he is: he plays the way he feels. He doesn't care about his technique! What he wants is to get the ball to a certain spot on the court at a certain speed. Period. With his technique, he can only do what he does, but he does it so well that he's number 2 in the world (currently number 4).

He has a lot of solutions against a lot of players. For example, he doesn't like to hit a forehand at shoulder height, so he manages to hit it at just the right height. That's enough to make him a monster."

Medvedev (in response to Tennis Majors): "Gilles Simon is an additional resource in my team. He will help us continue to progress, win titles and make me a better player. I know him as a very intelligent player, who can help me progress. In particular, I'm hoping to improve in the parts of my game that aren't the best in my eyes.

We'll see what happens next (after Dubai). I'm hopeful that it'll last a long time, but it depends on a lot of factors. I still don't know exactly how much time he'll spend with me. Of course, I'll be traveling more often with Gilles Cervara than with Gilles Simon."

Cervara: "What title will Gilles Simon have? Consultant, co-coach, assistant coach... it doesn't matter. What will count will be the quality of the work, the harmonization of our contributions, the good dynamic between everyone in the team and the results. That's what's going to be important (...)

He's going to bring us his sharp vision of the game and of Daniil's opponents. New and different things that belong to his experience and qualities. He will also back up things that have already been said and done with Daniil over the last seven years."