SHOCK: DANIIL MEDVEDEV DUMPS COACH CERVARA, DISCOVER WHY NADIA PETROVA SLAMS THE TIMING
Daniil Medvedev fires Gilles Cervara after 8 years. Discover how Thomas Johansson sparked a 2025 ranking resurrection
Nadia Petrova, who used to be ranked No. 3, believes Daniil Medvedev's coaching switch gave him a quick boost. She thinks he probably should've let go of Gilles Cervara sooner.
After losing in the first round of the US Open—which just kept his bad streak going—Medvedev split with Cervara, whom he'd been working with for eight years.
Cervara wasn't the only one to leave the team; fitness coach Eric Hernandez was also let go.
Soon after, Medvedev brought on Thomas Johansson, who won the Australian Open in 2002. About a month later, Medvedev made it to the Shanghai Masters semifinal and won his first title in two and a half years in Almaty. He had dropped to No. 18 in the rankings but bounced back to No. 13 by the end of 2025.
Petrova, who made it to the Grand Slam semifinals twice, was glad to see Medvedev get back on track in late 2025.
Petrova said Medvedev should've made changes way earlier: “Daniil’s back in the top ten, playing well at the Grand Slams, and winning tournaments. It's cool that he can switch up his team like that, especially since he and Gilles Cervara had been together for so long,” Petrova told Championat.
“Maybe Daniil didn't want to rush into anything and wanted to see their partnership through. But he probably should’ve changed things up sooner, when things first started going south. But it was his call. We could see at the end of the season that he started getting somewhere with the new coaches. His game slowly got better, and it did him good.”
Medvedev won 20 titles, got to six Grand Slam finals, and became world No. 1 with Cervara. But after winning the 2023 Rome Masters, his game started to decline. Still, Medvedev publicly backed his coach and thought they could get through it together.
In the end, Medvedev must have realised it wasn't working out and had to make a hard choice.
THE EIGHT-YEAR GAP: SVITOLINA REACHES FIRST WTA 1000 FINAL SINCE 2018 IN DUBAI
Svitolina stuns Gauff! Discover how she reached the Dubai final to face Pegula, plus Alcaraz's 11-0 streak and Venus' return.
Elina Svitolina stunned world number four Coco Gauff to earn a spot in the Dubai Tennis Championships final, where she’ll face Jessica Pegula.
Pegula got there first, clawing her way back after a rough start against Amanda Anisimova. She dropped the first set badly and even lost her serve early in the second, but still pulled off a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win.
Gauff, just 21, almost set up an all-American final, but Svitolina refused to fold. The match? Epic. Svitolina took it 6-4, 6-7 (13-15), 6-4 after more than three hours on court. She let four match points slip in a wild second-set tiebreak, but didn’t let that break her. She powered through the decider, and now she’s back in the Dubai final for the first time since she won the title back-to-back in 2017 and 2018.
“I was playing like there’s no tomorrow, just giving it everything,” Svitolina said afterwards.
Over in the men’s Qatar Open, world number one Carlos Alcaraz kept his perfect 2026 record alive. He beat Andrey Rublev 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 to reach the final. Alcaraz, just 22, already grabbed the Australian Open this season and became the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. He’s won all 11 matches he’s played this year.
“I know what I can do every time I step on the court,” Alcaraz said.
He’ll face Arthur Fils from France in the final. Fils beat Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, who’d knocked out world number two Jannik Sinner earlier in the week, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
And in some more big news, Venus Williams is heading back to Indian Wells. The seven-time Grand Slam champ, now 45, got a wildcard for both singles and doubles.
“It’s great to be heading back to Indian Wells and returning home to California,” Williams said in a statement.
9-0 STREAK: ANALYZING CARLOS ALCARAZ’S PERFECT START TO THE 2026 TENNIS SEASON
Alcaraz hits 9-0: Discover why Valentin Royer warned Alcaraz and Sinner after their 2026 clash and the latest ATP rankings.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner just got a playful warning from their ATP rival, Valentin Royer.
Alcaraz, with seven Grand Slam titles, and Sinner, who has four, have completely owned men’s tennis for the last couple of years. They’ve split the last nine majors; each grabbed four ATP Masters 1000 trophies; and keep swapping the No. 1 spot in the ATP Rankings.
No one else has really kept up. Novak Djokovic is still hanging around, but the rest of the guys, like Alexander Zverev, Lorenzo Musetti, Alex de Minaur, Taylor Fritz, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Ben Shelton, are all chasing from behind.
Alcaraz is rolling right now. He’s unbeaten in 2026 so far, standing at 9-0. After winning his first Australian Open title, he followed up with wins over Arthur Rinderknech and Royer.
After Alcaraz beat Royer 6-2, 7-5, the two shared a light moment at the net. Royer, currently world No. 60, told Alcaraz, “I’ll come for you and Jannik, don’t worry. Some day.” Alcaraz laughed and said, “I will wait for you, man.”
Royer actually had a shot in the second set. He broke Alcaraz’s serve early and was up 5-3, serving for the set, but Alcaraz broke back, held serve, and broke again to close out the match.
Asked if he was nervous, Alcaraz admitted, “Honestly, I had to be ready for anything. There were moments when I thought about a third set; I’m not going to lie. But that was just a small part of my mind. Mostly, I was focused on finding solutions, figuring out how to get back on track.
“I’m really happy I found my rhythm again and played good tennis. Sometimes it just comes down to one point. Closing out a set or a match isn’t always easy. I just had to stay in it, and I’m glad I turned it around and got the win in straight sets.”
Next, he faces seventh seed Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals. If he gets through, he’ll meet either Andrey Rublev or Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semis. Sinner is the likely opponent waiting in the final.
“Everybody expects us to play every final, every tournament, but that’s not easy. There are a lot of players out here who want to beat us,” Alcaraz said about a possible final against Sinner.