Simon on working with Medvedev: “In Australia, I sent all the tactics”

“I got to know Gilles (Simon) in 2018, 2019 when I first arrived on the circuit. I think he’s the player I’ve learned the most about tennis from, whether it’s in terms of what happens on court or off.”

At the end of 2022, while Gilles Simon was setting the Paris-Bercy crowd alight during his last dance – waltzing Andy Murray and Taylor Fritz off the court after epic matches – Félix Auger-Aliassime put an end to his fairytale. But after the duel, the Canadian paid tribute to the newly-retired player, praising his tactical science.

As Richard Gasquet said it, he was capable of “derailing all players” – and Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Juan Martín del Potro, Daniil Medvedev, Dominic Thiem, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick, all Grand Slam winners, have all fallen to Simon at least once.

It’s partially for this quality that Medvedev, has decided to call on “Gillou” to accompany him at tournaments in the absence of Gilles Cervara. According to our information, Madrid, Paris-Bercy and Dubai next week have already been confirmed, with Simon in the box of the current world No 4.

“He’ll bring us his keen insight into Daniil’s game and opponents,” explained Cervara earlier in the week, referring to the Frenchman who has beaten Medvedev three times in four meetings. “New and different things that belong to his experience and qualities. He’s going to support things that have already been done and said with Daniil for seven years.”

He gave me a list of 16 players he doesn’t like to play against, and I prepared 16 tactics!

Gilles Simon

He, too, has become a master strategist in the art of transforming the court into a chessboard to play tricks on his opponents to the point of driving them mad, and the Russian actually started working with the Frenchman two months ago.

“Daniil contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in doing a few weeks with them (Medvedev and his team) in 2024,” Simon revealed in an interview with Le Figaro. “(In 2019, before he faced Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals in Monte-Carlo) he had said to me: ‘Novak…what do you think?’ I had explained to him how to play and he had won (his first victory against Djokovic, after three defeats in as many matches). He remembered, which is why he wanted to try it out with me.”

The former world No 6 added: “I’ve already been working with him since December, but we haven’t said anything. In Australia, I sent all the tactics. During Daniil’s matches, I would send instructions to Gilles Cervara, who would pass them on, or not, in real time to Daniil! That’s really where I can help him.

“For example, he gave me a list of 16 players he doesn’t like to play against, and I prepared 16 tactics!” he laughed. “Daniil is extremely strong tactically, feels very precisely what needs to be done, but it happens to him, like everyone else, to make mistakes. Because of emotions, because he’s impatient… So I try to explain it to him, and I think he likes it.”

In the final of the Australian Open, in which he ultimately faded due to three five-set marathons beforehand – in the first round and then in the quarter-finals and semi-finals – Medvedev shone, and surprised, tactically. He was very aggressive, often coming to the net to keep his lines short.

He led two sets to love against Jannik Sinner, before bowing out, exhausted, after another five-round tussle. Inevitable. No-one in history has ever won a Grand Slam tournament by winning four matches in five sets.

And the Italian is undoubtedly one of the men for whom Simon will have to keep his mind churning in order to fine-tune his plans. After winning his first six encounters with Sinner, Daniil Medvedev lost the next four. In the space of three and a half months, from the Tokyo final at the beginning of October to the Melbourne final at the end of January, via another in Vienna and the Masters semi-final.

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