PARIS (AP) — After his five-set first-round win at the French Open, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina did not expect his coach to suddenly leave Paris.
The Spanish player had lunch with his mentor, former Roland Garros runner-up Mariano Puerta, before resting ahead of his next match. Puerta told him he was feeling unwell and returned to his hotel.
“Two or three hours later in the afternoon, he messaged me that he will not continue,” Davidovich Fokina said Wednesday after his second-round loss to Thiago Agustín Tirante 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1, 6-3.
The 23rd-ranked Spaniard said Puerta did not inform the rest of the coaching staff before flying to Miami.
“I heard that he did that a couple of times before with other players,” Davidovich Fokina said during his post-match press conference. “It seems normal for him.”
Puerta has been a controversial figure in tennis. As a player, the Argentine served bans in two separate doping cases.
Four months after the high point of his career — the final of the 2005 French Open — Puerta tested positive for etilefrine, a banned cardiorespiratory stimulant and was then suspended for eight years. He admitted in 2020 that he had lied to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to reduce his suspension to two years, according to an interview published by La Nacion newspaper.
Puerta’s defense said he drank water from a glass used by his then-wife to take effortil, a medication against menstrual cramps that contains etilefrine. Fifteen years later, Puerta said the origin of the drug was actually ginseng and caffeine pills that a friend of his fitness coach prepared for him.
Puerta, who tested positive in 2003 for a banned anabolic steroid, retired as a player in 2009.
“I thought he was a very good person,” Davidovich Fokina said. “It was my fault to hire him.”
Puerta has not publicly addressed on Davidovich Fokina’s comments.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Samuel Petrequin, The Associated Press
