{"id":399702,"date":"2026-01-10T03:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/399702\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T03:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:35:11","slug":"revealed-the-little-known-aussie-coach-behind-impressive-career-revival-of-tennis-star-daniil-medvedev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/399702\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealed: The little-known Aussie coach behind impressive career revival of tennis star Daniil Medvedev"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian tennis star\u00a0Daniil Medvedev<\/a> has revealed how an Australian coach – 20 years removed from the ATP Tour – has become the technical brains of an overhaul that has the former world No.1 back near his best.<\/p>\n

A barren two years means the three-time Australian Open<\/a> finalist will begin his season outside the top 10 for the first time since 2018.<\/p>\n

But Medvedev’s form at the Brisbane<\/a> International, where he’ll play a semi-final against American Alex Michelsen on Saturday night, means his cover is already blown.<\/p>\n

Medvedev, currently world No.13 and turning 30 next month, estimates he’s already playing at a ‘top-five’ level again – and has his new coaching duo to thank.<\/p>\n

Australian-born Rohan Goetzke began his coaching career in Europe, guiding an unseeded Richard Krajicek to the 1996 Wimbledon<\/a> title.<\/p>\n

He then coached Mario Ancic, but since 2006 has worked for the Netherlands’ men’s and women’s squads and held private roles in America.<\/p>\n

\"Russian <\/p>\n

Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev has revealed how an Australian coach – 20 years removed from the ATP Tour – has become the technical brains of an overhaul that has the former world No.1 back near his best<\/p>\n

\"Australian-born <\/p>\n

Australian-born Rohan Goetzke began his coaching career in Europe, guiding an unseeded Richard Krajicek to the 1996 Wimbledon title – he is now tweaking Medvedev’s game<\/p>\n

He’s now back in the hot seat, in partnership with Sweden’s 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, responsible for taking Medvedev back to the top.<\/p>\n

The 2021 US Open champion said it took just one phone call to allay fears the Australian was a spent force.<\/p>\n

‘I was kind of sceptical in the beginning…he (Goetzke) hadn’t been on tour for a long time, and usually that’s not a good thing,’ Medvedev said.<\/p>\n

‘But when I talked to him for the first time on the phone, he kind of surprised me.<\/p>\n

‘He analysed my game and said exactly what I felt was not working anymore.’<\/p>\n

Medvedev described Goetzke as the ‘technical’ component of an overhaul prompted by two lean years that’s netted just one title since he clinched five in 2023.<\/p>\n

‘The volley, on the serve, forehand, backhand, (he’s) maybe a tiny bit like, ‘If the ball is high you should do this, on the volley you should do this’,’ Medvedev, chasing a 22nd career title in Brisbane, said of his input.<\/p>\n

‘Some (other potential coaches) gave me their vision, and I maybe didn’t like it or it didn’t work out. With Thomas and Rohan, straightaway I liked what they told me.’<\/p>\n

\"Medvedev <\/p>\n

Medvedev is building towards the Australian Open, where he is a three-time finalist<\/p>\n

Medvedev’s high-quality victory over Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak on Friday took his record to 46-11 in Australia.<\/p>\n

He made the final in his only other visit to Brisbane in 2019, won his maiden ATP Tour title in Sydney in 2018 and was beaten in the Adelaide International semi-finals by Novak Djokovic in his only visit there in 2023.<\/p>\n

He’s also lost two of his three Australian Open finals after winning the first two sets at Melbourne Park, where he is 28-9.<\/p>\n

Again Medvedev looks destined for a deep run at the Grand Slam and says his off-season has super-charged him.<\/p>\n

‘(When) you haven’t played for like one month and a half, you’re probably trying few new things and there’s a tiny bit (of) stress,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘You wonder: ‘Is it going to work, maybe I’m going to miss, maybe I’m going to be scared or something?’<\/p>\n

‘But…I love this.’<\/p>\n

\"Medvedev <\/p>\n

Medvedev has been in impressive touch at the Brisbane International, and faces American Alex Michelsen on Saturday night in a semi-final<\/p>\n

Dominant top-two stars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, who boast a combined 12-1 in their last 13 meetings with the Russian, will again be the men to beat in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

But Medvedev paid the price for focusing too much on the pair last year.<\/p>\n

‘When I was top three, four, for sure thinking a lot about what to do with Carlos and Jannik, where I can improve and this and that,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘But because I played horribly, I never got to play them. ‘So this pre-season, I didn’t think at all about them.<\/p>\n

‘I was, like, ‘Okay, how do I get back to the level I can play to, first of all, beating the other guys?’<\/p>\n

‘And then maybe if I get to play them, I will talk to my new team and we see what we can do.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian tennis star\u00a0Daniil Medvedev has revealed how an Australian coach – 20 years removed from the ATP Tour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,2093,16151,457,82,593],"class_list":["post-399702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dailymail","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}