Managing Mirage and Coach Simon Strengths

By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, March 6, 2024

A mirage maker on courtroom, Daniil Medvedev confronted desert deception in his Indian Wells return this week.

“First day I came here I guess there was a sandstorm the day before I arrived so I went on center court it was lightning fast and I was like ‘Whoah, surprising I love it’,” Medvedev advised the media in his BNP Paribas Open pre-tournament presser. “Then the next day it became slow. So let’s see.

“I’m definitely not going to blame the court for anything I do which means play bad or play good or lose or win. I’m gonna enjoy it here. I love it here I’m gonna enjoy my time here and try to prolong it as long as possible.”

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Branding himself a “hard court specialist”, Medvedev spent bruising matches exploring his dysfunctional relationship with the purple Indian Wells courtroom throughout his run to the 2023 last.

Medvedev withstood a sprained proper ankle and Alexander Zverev 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5 then fended off Frances Tiafoe for his nineteenth consecutive victory to achieve his maiden Indian Wells last falling to Carlos Alcaraz final March.

A distinction within the 2024 model of the artist generally known as Meddy Bear: Medvedev employed former nemesis Gilles Simon to affix long-time coach Gilles Cervara on his teaching crew.

Though Simon just isn’t in Indian Wells this week, he was in Dubai final month as Medvedev, in his first event since reaching the Australian Open last, reached the semifinal.

While the pair don’t have any formal contract, Medvedev stated the plan is for Simon to journey about three months this season and he’s hopeful it will likely be a long-term partnership.

“We’re not gonna travel too much but some tournaments here and there probably something like 13 or 14 weeks on tour which is not a bad amount,” Medvedev stated. “We didn’t fix anything. We didn’t say: ‘We’re gonna work for one year and see how it goes?’ We see how it goes and if tomorrow him or me says it doesn’t work out we stop.

“So far it has been working great. He tries some more things. If you take someone it’s not just to keep it the way it is, it’s to add some small details and we do try to add them. I’m sure it’s going to be interesting to see them during the matches I did somethings already in Dubai, but it takes time it’s going to take time. It’s interesting, I like it so far. Hopefully we can keep it together for quite a long time, but let’s see how it goes.”

The 39-year-old Simon gained three of 4 profession conferences in opposition to Medvedev, with the three victories approaching three completely different surfaces.

Former US Open champion Medvedev advised Tennis Now’s Chris Oddo, Simon’s success in opposition to him was a place to begin in pursuing the Frenchman as coach. Medvedev stated Simon’s courtroom sense, analytical abilities and his capacity to clarify precisely why issues are occurring on courtroom have been all key elements of the rent.

“The exact story [of how we partnered] I’m gonna keep it to myself, it’s a bit personal,” Medvedev advised TN’s Chris Oddo. “At one moment I was thinking of adding someone to the team, first to replace Gilles Cervara when he’s not here on the tour And I was like why if i want to replace him i want to probably add someone who can help me to become a better player on the court.

“I thought about Gilles [Simon] because he somehow knew how to play me. That’s The thing: I hated to play him. Because when I’m on the court he knew what I’m gonna do and he knew how to beat me which I feel like it’s not an easy task. I managed to beat a lot of players so I was like at least that’s the first thing.”

In their time working collectively, Medvedev stated he’s impressed by how nicely Simon articulates what he intuits on courtroom.

“He can tell what he did and we can work on it. So if someone plays exactly like him I’m going to know what to do and how I can do better in my weak spots,” Medvedev stated. “So that was kind of the main thing about it. And for sure when we started working together I saw he understands many many things about tennis, which we—many tennis players—don’t think about it.

“I never thought about it myself as someone who thinks a lot on the court. But actually a lot of this is more feeling it, which is also kind of thinking, but more feeling it. He can explain with words why he sees one thing on the tennis court which is very tough and something probably most of tennis players cannot do.”

Photo credit score: Matthew Calvis