+ A
A -
NYT Syndicate
Miomir Kecmanovic first came to the United States from Serbia with his aunt in late August 2013. Misha, as he is known, was only 13, and everything, it seemed, was different.
The Florida air was thick, hot and hard to breathe. The language and food were unusual, and they did not have a car, so navigating around central Florida was a challenge.
"We went everywhere on foot," said Tanja Pavlov, Kecmanovic's aunt,"and that is not easy in America."
The one thing that was not different was tennis, the reason Kecmanovic had left the rest of his family in Serbia. He had been invited to attend the prestigious IMG Academy to hone his skills and advance his goal of becoming an elite professional.
He struggled at first against players four and five years his senior, but after 3 1/2 years, Kecmanovic, now 17, finished his junior career ranked No 1.
He has a Florida driver's licence, loves US food and has set a new course for the senior men's tour, where some foresee a rise to prominence.
"He's an exceptional young guy," said Jose Lambert, a longtime coach at the IMG Academy, where Kecmanovic, under the supervision of his aunt, spent most of his adolescence."Very bright, very driven, and he has a lot of ability. I think he has incredible potential."
Although Kecmanovic is from Belgrade, like the second-ranked Novak Djokovic, Kecmanovic's tennis journey is a departure from those of Djokovic and his generation of Serbian stars. Some of those players practiced in an empty swimming pool during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Kecmanovic, who was born a few months after Serbia's war with Kosovo ended in 1999, had already developed a love for tennis long before Djokovic won any of his 12 major titles. He admires and sometimes trains with Djokovic, but his first tennis hero was the Swiss master Roger Federer.
As a child, Kecmanovic quickly flashed promise, winning an under-10 tournament in Belgrade at 7. After he won the Kremlin Cup in Moscow in 2013, the IMG Academy, formerly known as the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, came calling.
"It was not an easy decision for my parents because I was 13 at the time," Kecmanovic, their only son, said during a recent interview at the IMG Academy."But I think they made the right choice."
The Kecmanovics are no ordinary family, and a combined effort from his parents, grandparents and aunts has helped Misha develop into one of the world's top tennis prospects.
His parents are pelvic surgeons in Belgrade. Both of his grandmothers are economists. His paternal grandfather was a well-known doctor and medical school professor.
Kecmanovic's maternal grandfather, Jovan Pavlov, introduced him to tennis, enrolling the rambunctious 6-year-old into a tennis school at the Zlatibor ski mountain resort near the Bosnian border, if only to channel his irrepressible energy.
Jovan Pavlov was a general in the Yugoslav army at the beginning of the Balkan wars and became known for speaking out against the conflict, Tanja Pavlov said. He retired soon after hostilities began in 1991, but his daughters ” Tanja and Maja, Misha's mother ” were forced to move to Serbia from Croatia, where they lived at the time.
"Because of him, we became 'enemies' and had to move to Serbia," Pavlov said in an email."My father appealed for peace on TV."
With the rest of Kecmanovic's family back in Serbia, Pavlov has provided vital support during Kecmanovic's transition to the United States. In 2013, when the family first debated the offer from IMG, one of the world's most famous sports academies, she volunteered to go with Kecmanovic as his guardian. Otherwise, his parents would not have allowed their son to go alone.
"It was very hard, but that was his destiny, not mine," Kecmanovic's father, Dragutin, said in a telephone interview from his home in Belgrade."We missed him very much. You go into your room and cry a little bit and then come out and everything is OK."
At first, tennis was a challenge. Because of his precocious talent, Kecmanovic was put in groups with older players bound for college, and later with pros like Kei Nishikori and Max Mirnyi. For a while, Kecmanovic wondered what he was doing there.
"I was so nervous, and I couldn't even get a ball back," he said."Max was the first big pro I played with when I got here. He is a double specialist. I am not that confident at the net, and I got hit a lot with the ball, and that kind of hurt. But it was a good learning experience."
Gradually, Kecmanovic began to hold his own. Last year he became only the third player to win the prestigious Orange Bowl tournament for boys 18 and under two years in a row; Harold Solomon did it in 1969-70 and Billy Martin in 1973-74. Past winners of the Orange Bowl include Federer, Andy Roddick, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl and Jim Courier.
Kecmanovic also became the first player since Dominic Thiem in 2011 to sweep the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl tournaments. Thiem, a 23-year-old Austrian, is now ranked eighth in the world.
"He's ready to play with the big boys," Mirnyi said in an interview at the Australian Open last month."I don't want to get into the numbers and the rankings, but he's certainly capable."
But the next step is still a challenge. Kecmanovic may have ended his junior career with the top ranking, but he is only No 659 on the ATP Tour.
"I think they are way ahead of me," Kecmanovic said."If I work on it, then maybe I can get there some day."
To improve his ranking, Kecmanovic is playing in a series of futures tournaments, a lower-level circuit. He won the first tournament he entered this year, in Sunrise, Florida, beating four players who were 21 or older. His aunt remains by his side, still studying migration through tennis.
"I am too old for Americanisation," she said."But Misha is like he was born here."
