Last year, it was his trainer, the French Gilles Cervara, with whom he has worked for four years in Cannes, who was crowned coach of the year by his peers. Additional educational honor, Gilles Cervara was crowned for his work with a player who nevertheless remained on a series of setbacks: in the final of the US Open and a white copy, three defeats in a row, synonymous with elimination in the group stage of the Masters 2019 .
A year later, it is finally about the student that we are talking about, after his two victories in a row in the last two important tournaments of the season, the Paris Masters and especially the London Masters bringing together the eight best players of the season. ‘year. Including his compatriot Andrey Rublev, whom former Russian world number 1 Ieveguni Kafelnikov saw at the top of the bill before Daniil Medvedev.
Huge progress on serve and return
On the Welovetennis.fr website, the winner of Roland-Garros 1996 found Daniil Medvedev too friable in forehand to enter before Rublev in the elite of Grand Slam winners. Like what the greatest tennis specialists sometimes lose their Latin with this player like no other, even if a victory at the Masters is not quite the equivalent of a Grand Slam.
Rather physically frail in the land of snowshoe golgoths, the 24-year-old Muscovite, 4e world before this Masters, is a model of progression in all areas. Without doubt not the most gifted of his generation, he has managed to rise in a spectacular way on his two weak points, the service and the return.
Taking advantage of the leisure activities of the first confinement, the specialized site We sport has looked into the details of its statistics since its arrival in the Top 100, in 2017. Concluding with an impressive increase of 10% in efficiency on these two crucial gestures .
Mental level work
Very enduring, never beaten in the exchange, Daniil Medvedev is often compared to the “professor” Gilles Simon, author of a recent book in which he describes the characteristics of the defense game.
It is without doubt on the mental level that this irritable and nervous boy has progressed the most this year. Apart from a prank at Wimbledon (he threw a coin at a referee to signal his suspicions of corruption towards him), Medvedev was rather held in check after the disasters of 2018-2019.
He then chained fines for breaking his rackets or insulting the entire world, including his opponents. His trainer, Gilles Cervara, compares him to a somersault who always gets on his feet, driven by an inner rage that he no longer shows, but probably still feels.
The Australian Open threatened
Will this end of the season appease him after he beat in one week in London Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and finally Dominic Thiem, nothing less than the number 1, 2 and 3 in tennis? Not sure if we are to believe the funny celebration, a pout not really happy, at the end of his Masters final before coming to greet his opponent at the net.
We will have to get used to the fact that the world number 4, armed to climb higher very quickly no doubt, does nothing like the others. We will also have to wait a bit to see if he clears the bar set by his glorious elder Kaflenikov: a Grand Slam or nothing.
We will know more in the next few days about the fate of the next Australian lift scheduled for January in Melbourne. But the oracles are for the moment very unfavorable.
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