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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday January 18, 2020





There are only three players aged 20 or younger in the ATP’s Top 30 at the moment, but Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic is planning to become the fourth.

It appears that he is well on his way.

Already at 53 in the ATP rankings, the Belgrade native climbed all the way from 131 at the start of 2019 to where he is right now by completing a breakout season that saw him win 24 matches, reach his first ATP final and earn over $1 million in prize money.

It was a fastastic if under-the-radar campaign for the Belgrade native, and if his first tournament of 2020 is any indication, 2020 could be even better.

Kecmanovic reached the semis at the Qatar Total Open, knocking off former World No.5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga along the way. A former junior World No.1 who stands 6’0” with tree trunks for legs, Kecmanovic prides himself on his consistency and he hopes that he can produce more of the steady, uncompromising tennis that he is becoming known for in 2020.


“I think the biggest key was that I was able to be consistent throughout the whole year,” Kecmanovic told Tennis Now from Dubai, where he spent the off-season training and practicing with tennis luminaries such as Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. “I was paying some good tennis throughout the whole year and I didn’t really have big ups and downs, I think I was keeping a steady line with my results and I think that definitely paid off this year.”

Wait a moment—back up there. Don’t gloss over that fact about Kecmanovic’s off-season as if it doesn’t matter, because it does. Kecmanovic has always been a player that has sought opportunities to train with the best, ever since he came to the IMG Academy at the age of 13.

He used that opportunity to become a top junior and these days Kecmanovic is taking that gameplan to the next level.

In 2018 he conducted the off-season in Tenerife, Spain training with Dominic Thiem and his gang of hard-charging sufferers as they spent their days punishing their bodies in the quest for obtaining every possible competitive advantage on offer ahead of the next season.

“It was definitely a good experience practicing with Dominic,” Kecmanovic says. “I think it helped me a lot to make me realize how much more and how much better I have to work in order to compete with these guys.”

Tennis Express

That hard work paid off in wins for Thiem, who won five titles including Indian Wells in a dazzling 2019 campaign. Last year at Indian Wells Thiem talked about that rugged off-season and how he was not stunned at all to see Kecmanovic making a smooth transition to the pro game.

“It's no surprise to me that he, I think, breaks now to the top 100 (Kecmanovic reached the quarterfinals at Indian Wells, becoming the first lucky loser to ever achieve the feat). He has a really good result here. Yeah, the hard work pays off.

Thiem added: “He's also a good guy to practice with. He's very solid, moves well. You have long rallies with him. You get a good rhythm. It was nice.”

Moving his base to Dubai and having the opportunity to train with Federer is the kind of thing that seems to happen to Kecmanovic—clearly he is a player that is eager to get a closer look at the practice habits of the top players, and hitting with Federer and Djokovic in December—could there be anything better than that?

“My coach set up the Dubai thing and it turned out to be the best experience so far,” Kecmanovic told Tennis Now. “I played with a lot of top guys and I had a lot of fun here and I’ll definitely try to come back for next year, too.”

Federer first hit with Federer when he was designated as a hitting partner at the 2017 ATP Finals—another stroke of good fortunune for Kecmanovic (or was it self-determinism?), who was just 17 at the time.

“Actually right now as I’m talking I’m waiting for [Federer] to come to the court so we can practice again,” Kecmanovic said, birds chirping in the background as he talks. “Him and Novak, I’ve been hitting with both of them, it’s just been a great experience. They are a lot of fun to practice with and it’s so cool to learn from these guys.”

Is Kecmanovic ever nervous around Federer, a player he claims is one of his biggest idols, along with his compatriot Djokovic? Not anymore.

“I already hit with him a bunch of times,” he says of Federer, “but definitely when I hit with him in London when I was a hitting partner at the 02, that was definitely when I was really nervous about it.”

It sounds like a pretty smart approach that Kecmanovic is taking to his off-season regiment. Practice like the best and one day you’ll be the best. Of course it isn’t that simple in reality, but Kecmanovic’s willingness to put himself out there can’t hurt his chances of backing up his solid 2019 with another strong push up the rankings.

“Obviously when you are able to have off-seasons training with the best in the world, it’s going to lend to you playing pretty well, especially at the start of the year,” said Jimmy Arias, a former World No.5 who works closely with Kecmanovic in his job as the Director of Tennis at the IMG Academy.

Arias says that one of the toughest parts of transitioning from off-season practice to the rigors of match play in January is getting used to playing points under pressure again. That’s not easy to replicate in practice but Arias thinks that Kecmanovic takes care of that by practicing with greats like Federer and Djokovic.

“I feel like when he goes and plays with Top 10 players that feels like pressure to him, that’s the same almost as playing a match, when he’s practicing with them. So I think that’s obviously pretty helpful.”

Arias thinks that Kecmanovic’s willingness to seek out the best says a lot about his motivation. “He obviously wants to be a great player so he wants to be around those players to see what they are doing,” he says.

But what about Kecmanovic’s game? Unlike more heralded NextGen stars such as Denis Shapovalov, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alex de Minaur and Felix Auger-Aliassime, we don’t hear all that much about him. Does Kecmanovic have what it takes to make another step and become an elite player?

“I think that he’s very solid,” Arias told Tennis Now. “He does everything reasonably well. Groundstrokes are very good. Moves pretty well, can take the ball early.”

But in today’s tennis, weapons are paramount and Arias still believes that Kecmanovic will need to develop more first-strike capabilities.

“In my mind, to get to the level that he wants, he’s going to have to develop a few more weapons,” Arias says. “Serve is going to have to get him a few more points than it does now. He’s got to find ways to take time away from his opponents whether it is hitting the ball slightly bigger or a little bit earlier—something to make his opponents feel a little more rushed.”

Arias also told Tennis Now that Kecmanovic can be hard on himself at times. Whether that’s merely a sign of his own outsized desire to improve his game or a shortcoming remains to be seen. But based on the results he has been able to produce, both as a junior and especially last season, the Serb seems to possess a certain je ne sais quoi.

“It seems to me like he’s got those intangibles,” Arias said. “He’s exceeded expectations I think every year that he’s played.”

Kecmanovic may indeed be destined for bigger and better things, but at the moment he’s focused on improving one step at a time. He’s just been on the practice courts with a pair of thirty somethings that are still looking pretty untouchable at the top of the game. He’s done the math and knows he’s got more than enough time to get where he needs to go.

“Ranking-wise I would like to see if I could break top 30 this year, that would be my main ranking goal,” Kecmanovic says. “But also to stay healthy and be injury free throughout the year and just keep improving my game. I think that’s the most important part because I’m still young, I still have a lot of time ahead of me, I just need to be prepared and be ready for everything."

 

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