Gilles was: why Medvedev decided to change the coach

Last week ended with a triumphant victory of Ekaterina Alexandrova at the tournament in Linz (WTA-500). In the final, the Russian defeated Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska, losing 0:3 in the deciding game, and won the biggest title of her career. Also recently, the best Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev, who broke off his relationship with Gilles Simon, announced serious changes in his team. More about these events - in the material of "Izvestia".

Alexandrova's title

Ekaterina started the new season unsuccessfully. At three tournaments in Australia, she won only one match (beating Leila Fernandez in the first round of Adelaide). After the Australian Open-2025, Alexandrova dropped out of the top-25 for the first time in a long time. However, she made a quick comeback at the tournament in Linz, where she always played well. In Austria, she managed to reach the final twice. In 2018, the native of Chelyabinsk lost in the deciding match to Italy's Camila Giorgi, and in 2024 - the representative of Latvia Alena Ostapenko.

This time Ekaterina was seeded number four, missing the first round. In 1/8 she defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, in the quarterfinals she won a willful victory over Petra Martic of Croatia (losing the first set), and in the semifinals she defeated the first seed Karolina Mukhova. In the first game, the Russian hung a "sheep" on the Czech, and in the second game she won four break points. In the final this time Alexandrova had to play with fifth seed Dayana Jastremska. In Linz, the Ukrainian was stronger than Lucia Bronzetti, Antonia Ruzic, Maria Sakkari and Clara Towson.

Dayana won all four matches in two sets, but in the first game against Alexandrova she literally capitulated. Ekaterina made a quick break (2:0) and soon closed the set confidently (in 29 minutes), realizing two break points out of three. Yastremskaya also helped with three double faults. The second game was also in favor of the Russian. In the second game she again managed to make a break, and soon the Russian led 3:0. But when the Ukrainian won one game, Alexandrova's solid game suddenly broke down. She gave up one serve after another and had no chance on serve. Within half an hour, Dayana not only equalized the score, but also took the lead in the third game.

Ekaterina switched on at 0:3 in the deciding game. She finally took her serve, and in the next game she was able to clinch a break. And when at 2:3 she took her serve to zero, it became clear that all the fight was still ahead. And so it was. In the seventh game, Alexandrova earned two break points (40:15), but could not realize them. This did not upset the Russian. Soon she equalized the score, and the key moment happened in the 11th game. Dayana led 40-0 and seemed to have secured the tie-break. But then Ekaterina equalized the score, and then won two more straight games. That's five games in a row.

It remained to serve for the match, but it was a challenge for the Russian. Yastremskaya managed to win two match points and then prevented her opponent from realizing two more attempts to win the match on "even". However, Alexandrova still managed to please the Russian fans, especially her coach Igor Andreev, who was watching the match from the player's box.

Ekaterina won the WTA-500 title for the first time and moved up five positions in the rankings. She is now ranked 25th. Among the Russians only Lyudmila Samsonova (20), Anna Kalinskaya (18), Mirra Andreeva (15), Diana Schneider (13) and Daria Kasatkina (11) are higher. Diana moved up from 72nd to 50th in the rankings by reaching the final.

Parting ways with Simon

For Gilles Simon, working with Daniil was his first big coaching experience. The Frenchman finished his career as an athlete in 2022. As a tennis player he took 14 ATP titles and rose to number six in the world rankings, and he was also a very uncomfortable opponent for Medvedev. The score of their head-to-head meetings is 3-1 in favor of Simon. The Russian had the last word, winning the fourth match. However, back in 2020 - in the season when Daniil won the Masters in Paris and the Open - Gilles managed to hang his opponent with a "sheep" in Marseille: 6:4, 6:0. Simon was ranked 58th at the time, while Medvedev was fifth.

Their cooperation became known in February last year, but the first working communication happened back in December 2023. The December request for Simon's help did not come by chance. Back in 2019 at the Monte Carlo Masters before his match against Djokovic, the Russian asked the Frenchman for advice. Gilles did not refuse the request, and Daniil ended up beating Novak for the first time in his career. Remembering that episode, Medvedev decided to add a new specialist to the team.

At first it was a matter of a few weeks. But Simon's probationary period went perfectly. At the first tournament of the 2024 season, the Australian Open, the Russian reached the final, where he was very close to his second Slam, but lost in five sets to Spain's Carlos Alcaraz. Before the second tournament of the season - ATP 500 in Dubai - Medvedev has already officially announced a new coach, saying that he expects a lot of joint victories.

Daniil's prediction of titles with Simon did not come true. And it didn't come true at all. During the season, the Russian did not win a single final, which has not happened to him since 2017. Medvedev had only one title match (if you take the Australian Open-2024 out of the brackets) during the entire period of their close cooperation - he lost to Alcaraz at the Indian Wells Masters. By comparison, in the "pre-Simonov" year of 2023, Daniil had nine finals, of which he won five.

It seems the partnership started to fall apart just a couple months after it began. During this period, the Russian said that everything was going great and that Simon was bringing a lot of new things to his game. However, at the same time the tennis player reported that he did not always understand his coach, although Medvedev, who has lived in Monte Carlo for a long time, knows French perfectly well.

At the end of the failed season Medvedev did not take the French coach's advice and continued to work with him. Before the start of the Grand Slam in Melbourne, the Russian said that he had one of the best pre-season preparations, so everything should be great. Except that it turned out the other way around. Medvedev squeaked out a five-set win over 418th-ranked Kasidit Samray of Thailand, and in the second round he failed to cope with 121st-ranked Lerner Ten of the United States.

Since Daniel had played the previous season in Melbourne in the final, the loss of points was a big one. Thus, in a year of working with Simon, the Russian dropped from third place in the ATP rankings to seventh. Change is overdue, but it is far from certain that the problem is only with the coach, or with him at all. Medvedev is 28 years old, so athletic retirement is not close at hand. However, tennis has rejuvenated a lot in recent years. Against the backdrop of current leaders Yannick Cinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the Russian is no longer as agile and stable. Yes, and his tennis is a little bit in the background. For example, Daniil is skipping all tournaments before the Australian Open for the second time simply because he wants to celebrate New Year's Eve with his family.

Whether Medvedev will add someone else to his team and what the current set-up will lead to, we will find out as the season progresses. The Russian has a lot planned for this month. Tournaments in Rotterdam (February 3), Marseille (February 10) and Dubai (February 24) await him.