After a defeat in the first round of the US Open – which only extended his run of poor results – Medvedev parted ways with Cervara. They worked together for eight years.
Cervara wasn’t the only staff member to leave the 2021 US Open champion’s team, as fitness coach Eric Hernandez was also fired.
A few days later, Medvedev hired 2002 Australian Open winner Thomas Johansson as a replacement. A month later, the former world number 1 reached the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters and won his first title in two and a half years in Almaty. The Russian, who at one point fell to No. 18 in the rankings, improved his ranking to No. 13 before the 2025 season ended.
Petrova, a former two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist, 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 because he can change teams. They had such a long history with Gilles Cervara,” Petrova said. Championship.
“Maybe Daniil really didn’t want to rush things and planned to see this ten-year cycle through to the end. Although he should have changed teams and coaches much earlier, during the very early 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 started to gradually improve his game and he benefited from it.”
Medvedev won twenty titles, reached six Grand Slam finals and reached the number 1 ranking in the world under Cervara’s leadership. But after winning the 2023 Rome Masters, the Russian’s form gradually began to decline. However, the Russian publicly supported his coach and believed they could weather the storm together.
Ultimately, Medvedev probably realized it wouldn’t work and had to make a difficult but necessary decision.
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