Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina was left stunned at the French Open after coach Mariano Puerta abruptly quit through a text message and flew to Miami without informing anyone in the team, forcing the 21st seed to continue his Roland Garros campaign without a coach by his side.
The strange split came shortly after Davidovich Fokina’s exhausting five-set win over Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur in the opening round. According to the Spaniard, there was no sign of trouble after the match as the two even had lunch together before Puerta returned to the hotel, saying he was not feeling well.
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“After the match against Dzumhur, we had lunch and after that I went to cool down a little bit. He said he was feeling bad, he was going to the hotel,” Davidovich Fokina told reporters.
A few hours later, however, the Spaniard received a message from Puerta saying he would no longer continue as his coach.
“In the afternoon, like two-three hours later, he texted me a message saying that he will not continue,” Davidovich Fokina said.
“He didn’t say nothing to anybody to the team, he just took the flight and flew to Miami without saying a word to us.”
Puerta, a former Argentine player who has previously worked with Christian Garin and Brandon Nakashima, reportedly blocked both Davidovich Fokina’s and his wife’s phone numbers after leaving Paris.
Davidovich Fokina admitted the sudden exit may have affected him mentally as he suffered a four-set defeat to Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante in the second round on Wednesday.
“Probably it affected me subconsciously,” he said after the loss.
Despite the dramatic exit, the Spaniard insisted there had been no argument between the two during or after the Dzumhur match.
“The thing is we didn’t fight, everything was normal. In the match, everything was normal. We were very communicative during the match against Dzumhur,” he said.
“I don’t know what to say because it was strange. But nothing can surprise me anymore. I have seen a lot of things through my career, so this is another thing.”
Davidovich Fokina later claimed he discovered that Puerta had behaved similarly with other players in the past.
“I thought that he was a very good person and after that I discovered he did this a couple times before with other players,” he said.
“I was like, ‘Okay, it was my fault to hire him.'”
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
