Bresnik on Medvedev scandal: "At some point the loss of authority will be too great"
Daniil Medvedev verbally abused his coach Gilles Cervara in the HalleWestfalen final until he left the stadium. Not an isolated case for legendary coach Günter Bresnik . But also not a long-term model for success.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jun 20, 2022, 07:52 pm
The final weekend in HalleWestfalen was characterized by strong tennis. But also from Daniil Medvedev's dispute with his coach Gilles Cervara. In the semifinals against Oscar Otte, Medvedev let his anger run free in the direction of the box, which Cervara endured stoically. In the final against Hubert Hurkacz, the tirades of the world number one were contradicted, until Cervara finally took his bag and left the stadium.
Not a premiere, mind you. Because there was a similar incident at the Australian Open 2021. And this is exactly where coaching legend Günter Bresnik sees a potential problem. "Something like this can happen. But if it becomes a permanent condition that the coach becomes the player’s scratching post, then at some point the loss of authority is too great for you to be able to work together in a meaningful way.”
Bresnik does not know the history
Bresnik also tells tennisnet.com: "There's something like that everywhere, with me and with every other coach too. The question is what Medvedev said, mostly there is a history. It could be that there has been friction for days.” Why is that? "Problems of this kind mostly occur where the age difference between coach and player is very small.".
So would it only be logical if Cervara no longer put up with this behavior from Medvedev and packed his things right away? "But as long as you're economically dependent on someone, people just accept things that they wouldn't otherwise accept. That makes it difficult,” explains Günter Bresnik.