French Open star’s coach ‘blocks player and wife’ and flies home on day of match | Tennis | Sport

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has claimed that his coach, Mariano Puerta, suddenly left his team and flew home on the day of his first-round victory at the French Open. The No. 21 seed beat Damir Dzumhur in his opening match on Sunday, but lost to Thiago Agustin Tirante in Tuesday’s second-round match, with Puerta noticeably absent.

French commentators claimed that Davidovich Fokina and his coach had a bust-up in the days between his first and second-round matches, and said the Spanish player fired Puerta. But the world No. 23 now says it was Puerta who told him their partnership was over hours after he beat Dzumhur, and then flew home to Miami.

“After the match against Dzumhur, we had lunch and then I went to do some recovery. He said he wasn’t feeling well and was going back to the hotel. Up to that point, everything was normal. Nothing happened between the team and us,” Davidovich Fokina told Punto de Break after losing in the second round of Roland Garros.

“And in the afternoon, two or three hours later, he sent me a message saying he wasn’t going to continue and all that. And the thing is, he didn’t tell anyone, not even the team. He just got on a flight and went to Miami without saying a word to us. Then I heard he’d done it a couple of times before with other players, so it seems like it’s normal for him.

“In the end, I’m not going to chase after him if he decided to leave and not continue until the end of the tournament. It’s not my problem. He’s an adult and can make his own decisions, so I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m going to respond to that message, but as a person, as far as the whole team is concerned, he let us down.”

The 26-year-old also rubbished claims that they had been arguing, and said they “never fought”, even though they “communicated a lot” during his first-round victory.

While Davidovich Fokina has no ill will towards his former coach, he also said Puerta blocked not just him, but his wife, too. The two do not follow each other on Instagram anymore, and Puerta’s bio no longer says he is Davidovich Fokina’s coach.

“We had a very good relationship. Nothing ever happened, not a single tense moment, nothing at all. In fact, he’s even blocked my wife on his phone, and me too,” he added. “So, I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. In the end, he lives his life, and I live mine. If he acts like this, in his forties, well, those are his decisions.”

The 21st seed in Paris also said the sudden split affected him during his match against Tirante, which saw him suffer a 4-6 7-6(4) 6-1 6-3 defeat. He added: “I’m not made of stone.

“It’s true that he told me on a Sunday, and I’ve had at least two days to process it. It’s probably affected me subconsciously, but it’s also true that I haven’t trained much to play five sets on a court.”

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