Daniil Medvedev has a big year ahead of him after a relatively disappointing 2025 season.
Medvedev only won one Grand Slam match this year, with the former world number one losing his last four matches at majors.
This caused Medvedev to fall to his lowest ranking in six years, before he started to return to form in the latter stages of the season.
Medvedev won his first title in 29 months at the Almaty Open, and a former world number three believes he made a mistake this year.
Nadia Petrova says Daniil Medvedev should have changed his coach sooner
After losing his fourth consecutive Grand Slam match at the US Open, Medvedev split from his long-term coach Gilles Cervara, whom he had worked with for eight years.
This is something 13-time WTA title winner Nadia Petrova spoke about in an interview with Championat, where she appeared to support the decision that Medvedev made, but claimed he should have made it sooner.
Petrova also suggested that a positive 2026 season for Medvedev would be returning to the top 10 of the ATP rankings.
“Dani’s return to the top ten, good performances at the Grand Slams, tournament victories,” said Petrova. “He’s a great guy for being able to change teams. They had such a long history with Gilles Cervara.
“Perhaps Dani really didn’t want to rush things and was planning to see this 10-year cycle through to the end. Although he should have changed teams and coaches much earlier, during the very first 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 began to gradually improve his game, and it benefited him.”
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Nadia Petrova names the ATP player who she thinks could leave the top 10 in 2026
While Petrova believes that Medvedev has a good opportunity to return to the top 10 in 2026, she was also asked which player she thinks could exit the top 10.
Although he is currently the world number four, Petrova responded by suggesting that age could catch up to Novak Djokovic in 2026.
“That’s a very interesting question. It could even be Novak Djokovic himself,” answered Petrova. “After all, if you look at age, all the players in the top 10 are around 23. Sasha [Alexander] Zverev and Taylor Fritz are 28, and Novak is 38.”
“This year, of course, Novak managed to win two tournaments, but he didn’t reach the finals of any Grand Slam tournaments. And each time, it’s getting more and more difficult for him physically. I can’t even imagine who else it could have been. Everyone in the top ten deservedly did so based on their game.”
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Djokovic reached four Grand Slam semifinals in 2025, but was unable to make it all the way to a major final for the first year since 2017.
As he looks to prove Petrova wrong next year, Djokovic will begin his 2026 season in Adelaide ahead of the Australian Open.
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