Former world No. 3 Nadia Petrova thinks that Daniil Medvedev's coaching change brought instant success, and that the Russian probably should have fired Gilles Cervara earlier.
Following a US Open first-round loss – which only prolonged his series of poor results – Medvedev parted ways with Cervara. They worked together for eight years.
Cervara wasn't the only staff member who departed the 2021 US Open champion's team as fitness coach Eric Hernandez was also fired.
A couple of days later, Medvedev hired 2002 Australian Open winner Thomas Johansson as a replacement. A month later, the former world No. 1 reached the Shanghai Masters semifinal and won his first title in two and a half years in Almaty. The Russian, who plummeted to No. 18 in the rankings at one point, improved his ranking to No. 13 before the 2025 season ended.
Petrova, a former two-time Grand Slam semifinalist, was happy to see the 21-time ATP champion slowly rediscover his form in late 2025.
Petrova: Medvedev should have made changes to his team much earlier
“Daniil's return to the top ten, good performances at the Grand Slams, tournament victories. He’s a great guy for being able to change teams. They had such a long history with Gilles Cervara," Petrova told Championat.
“Perhaps Daniil really didn’t want to rush things and was planning to see this 10-year cycle through to the end. Although he should have changed teams and coaches much earlier, during the very first stages of failure. But it was his decision. We saw at the end of the season that he started to show results with the new coaches. He began to gradually improve his game, and it benefited him.”
Medvedev won 20 titles, made six Grand Slam finals, and reached the world No. 1 ranking under the guidance of Cervara. But after winning the 2023 Rome Masters, the Russian's form started to gradually dip. However, the Russian publicly supported his coach and thought that they could weather the storm together.
In the end, Medvedev probably realized that it wasn't going to work and had to make a tough but necessary decision.
