"I felt as if I was dying" - ex-professional Franco Davin talks about coronavirus disease
Former world class player Franco Davin - ex-coach of Gaston Gaudio and Juan Martin del Potro - talks about his COVID-19 illness.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit:
Jul 23, 2020, 10:45 am
Franco Davin, formerly number 30 in the world, without previous illnesses and still physically fit, recently had to struggle violently with his coronavirus disease, as he reported in a detailed conversation with the Argentine La Nation .
He worked in Key Biscayne / Miami on the square, where it was very hot at the end of June. And at some point had the feeling of getting sunburnt. "I have to get out of the heat," was his first thought. This was followed by tiredness, the feeling of getting a strong flu, "with such physical pain that you don't want to get up". At the same time, he went into quarantine, a little earlier than normal, because his second son was suffering from Down syndrome and was therefore at risk. The positive test result came a few days later. "I work with a lot of kids aged 18, 20, 22 who are apparently asymptomatic and transmit the virus," Davin estimates.
Davin: "The worst moment was the lack of air"
In addition to the typical loss of smell and taste, he "felt better after four to five days". Then the cough started. And Davin about getting short of breath. "That is the worst. In my situation, it made me despair the most because you read what could happen. I have Italian friends who told me one thing, the Spaniards told me another." He had monitored himself with an oxygen saturation meter. "The worst moment was the lack of air because you don't know how far to go. It was at the limit of the saturation number. At night you start to despair a little. I had a bad time."
He also lost weight during this phase, "later I lost my sense of taste: I took a glass of vinegar and it tasted like drinking water. You also smell no perfume, just nothing. At night the lack of air intensifies a little. And outside you are in a normal moment, out of breath. Then you think it gets worse, immediately reach for the satiety device. "
Above all, the uncertainty drove him crazy, said the former clay court specialist. "I felt like I was dying. That I was four days away from being able to go one way or the other."
Thoughts about Argentina - "It hurts me the most"
Davin is now feeling better, but in his thoughts he is in his home country Argentina. "What makes me sad is the thought of people who have to go to work and have no money to give to their families. It hurts me the most," said Davin. "People who have nothing to eat, who are desperate and lose their things after so much work. Those who sit at the table with their children who look at you as if to say, 'What's going on?'"
After his active career, Davin had trained his fellow countrymen Gaston Gaudio and Juan Martin del Potro and led to two major victories - Gaudio for the French Open title (2004), del Potro for winning the US Open (2009). By 2019 he had also worked with Fabio Fognini .