"That's a lie, that's not how it happened" - Davidovich Fokina's former coach labels him as a 'liar' after press conference outburst over abrupt departure

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina's 2026 French Open has come to an end, but the discourse around him and his former coach, Mariano Puerta, still remains. Puerta has since come forward to explain the details of his split.

The drama occurred after the Spaniard's first round win at Roland Garros. "After the (first round) 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 and everything was normal,” Alejandro Davidovich Fokina said in his press conference.

“In the afternoon, like two or three hours later, he texted me this message that he will not continue and whatever. He just took the flight and flew to Miami without saying a word to us."

This may have affected him in his second round tie versus Thiago Tirante. The big serving Argentine got came back from a set deficit to win 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-3. This was his third consecutive exit at this stage of the tournament. The 2021 quarter-finalist continues to struggle for form having not won more than one match in a single tournament since Indian Wells.

Puerta was not in Paris to watch the 21st seed's latest defeat, having left him right before. He spoke told Punto de Break the details of this unusual scenario.

"I'd like to start by saying that I arrived in Paris with my patience completely exhausted," he began. "The whole team knew it; what I'm about to say won't surprise anyone. In fact, I'd told more than one person on the team that if certain things didn't change, I wouldn't last much longer. After six months with Alejandro, the reality is that the player still wasn't showing any improvement in an area where the entire team had unanimously asked him to start working. I'm referring to the mental and emotional aspect."

The interviewer interrupted to find out more about why her was losing his patience. "Look, Alejandro is a player who, when he's on the court, is very intense, very emotional, and can often have reactions that are a bit out of line. Perhaps bordering on disrespect. For example, the second round we had at the Australian Open was already a very difficult match in that sense. People who know him will have seen that, on occasion, someone even left his box. It's not easy to deal with this when it happens constantly, so after almost 20 weeks of traveling with him, there came a point where I needed to make a cut if I didn't want to end up getting sick. And look, I'm a former player myself, I've been there, but in that sense, I reached a limit that wouldn't allow me to continue."

With both of them having a temper at times, it can be a tricky environment that they both live in. "I know Alejandro is a good kid. We've had an amazing time off the court and on it too, it's just that these kinds of incidents accumulate […] I have a temper too," he admitted. "I used to be a good kid as well. It's a tough subject, it's not easy, that's why what happened in the first round of Roland Garros affected me so much. That day, again, there were reactions and attitudes that I didn't like; the whole team is tired of this, which is why we were so focused on him improving."

There was an incident that occurred late in the five-set thriller against Dzumhur which still affects him to this day. "Something bad happened in the fourth or fifth set. At a point in the match when I was trying to encourage him, when I wanted to push him so he wouldn't lose focus, Alejandro turned around with a look on his face that made it seem like he was going to kill me: 'Can't you see I'm tired? That I can't move? Don't you ever say another word to me!' He said it in a way that I still feel."

He did not muster up a reply. "The thing is, these things accumulate until one day the rope breaks. That day I had a really bad time; I'm talking about a health issue."

After the match, he came clean with his manager about his plans. "While he was out cycling, I was sitting in the restaurant with his manager. I told him very clearly: 'Today is my last day, I feel terrible, my heart is racing.' I don’t know if it was the sun, the pressure, or just my bad temper that made me feel so empty."

He told other members of his team about his decision. "They understood me perfectly. We didn't talk much more because we were exhausted after the match; I didn't even eat. I wasn't feeling well at all at that moment, so I decided to go back to my hotel to rest. Three hours later, I sent Alejandro a message—the one you just read. Around 10:30 p.m., after coming back from the vet, he replied and said, 'We'll talk tomorrow'."

That message he showed the interviewer was a text of more than 50 lines. It was full of gratitude but delivered a blunt message that was obviously tough for him to swallow. The chance of speaking to him and explaining the situation was perfect.

"I assure you I was thrilled, I wanted to talk. I started thinking that maybe he was open to reflecting, or maybe we could finish the tournament together and then discuss the text I sent him. Do you think that if we had sat down to talk the next day and he had asked me to stay, I wouldn't have?"

However, that chat never occurred. "There's zero chance I wouldn't have stayed, I'm 101% staying! The problem is that that conversation never happened. The next day I was at the hotel, relaxing, 10:30 in the morning. Suddenly, someone from his team calls me: 'Alejandro wants to tell you to take care of your plane ticket, find it yourself, and pay for it. You can go to Miami.'

"This triggered everything; I froze. Two hours later, I reacted, blocked him on my phone, blocked his wife too, packed my suitcase, checked out of the hotel, and said goodbye. By the way, minutes later, I also sent the same message I sent him to all the team members so they would know what I had sent Alejandro. I have a response from each of them: they all congratulated me."

Then came the iconic Instagram story where he was on a plane back to Miami with a glass of champagne with the caption: "There's currently no coaches, fitness trainers or physios with half of the balls that I do. Salute to you."

He explained why he posted it. "Look, I posted it because I think I did something not many coaches are willing to do these days. Something that sets me apart from other coaches is that I'm willing to lose my job to do what's right. There are values ​​that are non-negotiable for me, no matter what. You can't turn a blind eye to certain things."

He claimed Davidovoch Fokina was lying in that notorious press conference. "That's a lie, that's not how it happened," he confirmed. "All the reasons are in that message. In fact, I start the text by telling him that I'm not the right coach for him. I always think about the player, and with Alejandro , there was an obvious area he needed to improve, but I wasn't achieving that change. And on the other hand, I was starting to feel unwell. I grew very fond of this kid, but I didn't want to end up getting sick. The whole text was written with respect and love. I offered him my perspective on everything that could help him improve… honestly, I don't deserve everything he said or everything that happened."

One of the reasons could be due to Davidovich Fokina's communication skills. "You know what? Communication isn't Alejandro's strong suit. It's not easy to sit down and talk with him, especially about topics that might get tedious or that he knows might upset him. It's not a bad thing, but it's just like it sounds—it's not his greatest strength. The thing is, I wasn't feeling well, so I went back to the hotel, and I'm sending him that message from there."

He claimed that Puerta had done this before, but he was not so sure. "Well, I don't know, because I worked with Brandon Nakashima for two years before. Maybe he thinks I abandoned him, but that wasn't the case. I finished the 2025 season with Brandon, and that's where we couldn't reach an agreement to continue because of a condition he imposed on me. What's more, my relationship with Brandon is excellent now, both with him and his mother. I also worked with Cristian Garín; ask him what I'm like personally or how I work. A lot of people from the tour wrote to me to ask what happened; they know perfectly well what I'm like."

Again the communication was not on point, and Davidovich Fokina was annoyed over the whole situation. "It hurt him that I decided to leave… and that I actually left," he said. "It wasn't pleasant for me either. After my relationship with Alejandro all these months, receiving that call from his team with such a statement was incredibly hard. The last thing he can say is that I left without giving reasons, because they're all in the message. How can I not tell anyone? The whole team knew!

"I'll say it again: communication isn't Alejandro's strong suit. He probably doesn't even know the rest of the team received that message. It's a very strange situation, which is why I decided to speak out, because the information he shared at that conference was incomplete, and some of his comments were even clearly intended to cause harm."

He was not here to speak badly of his former player. "I'm not here to speak ill of Alejandro; I'm 47 years old and I'm not going to stoop to the level of a 25-year-old. I thought it was important to clear up this whole matter and, truly, I hope that I can help him in some way."

The conversation went back to his overall health. "My mum has suffered the most from all of this. She had an allergic reaction when she heard Alejandro say I wasn't a good person. I was an excellent person to Alejandro, just like I was to all the other players I worked with. That message I sent him wasn't written by a bad person. I didn't even leave the next day; I stayed until they told me to get my plane ticket and leave."

He was satisfied with the work he had done, stating the one thing which needed to be improved. "I gave it my all, I always give my full commitment to every player, I even put my personal life aside. I had a lot of travel, a lot of sacrifices, a lot of stress. Alejandro is a fantastic guy, he's got a tremendous physique, I could go on and on about him for all day.

"I'm telling you, if he ever improves in that area, he's going to be very difficult to stop; he'll be winning tournaments nonstop. He's a great competitor, he goes out of his way for his people, he's a really great guy. I don't understand what happened to him during that conference, I don't understand why he reacted that way, but at least I left having been able to tell him everything I thought. Our job is to tell the player what we see, it's just that some people don't know how to take it, no matter how respectfully you tell them. I left proud of everything I did, at peace with my work."

They have briefly messaged since. "Yes, he sent me a message yesterday morning. I had sent him another one the night before, to which he replied very nicely."