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Serbian tennis superstar Novak Djokovic praised Miomir Kecmanovic as he has stated that the 22-year-old Serb has made an obvious progress in his game. Kecmanovic has had a couple of notable results this year as he started his season by reaching the Australian Open round-of-16.
Last month, Kecmanovic made back-to-back Masters quarterfinals in Indian Wells and Miami. “The progress Kecmanovic has made in his game is obvious," Djokovic said in Belgrade. "In the first place his progress refers to how he moves on the court.
His strokes have always been good but he lacked movements, frontside running, backwards running, transitions from defence to offense. I believe he has made substantial progress there. I’ve seen that his game has become much more aggressive.
Kecmanovic has spent a lot of time in the US and he grew up as a tennis player at a hard court. He is an all-around player and he can adjust to different surfaces. I believe that he’ll play well on the clay because he is strong and in good physical shape.
He also improved his serve he was struggling with in the past."
Djokovic: Kecmanovic is on the right path
Kecmanovic is currently enjoying a career-high ranking of No. 38 in the world but Djokovic believes the 22-year-old deserves to be ranked even higher.
"Kecmanovic is young and has a lot of time, and deserves to be ranked much higher than now. He is on the right path, he has just had the best three months of his career, and he made a smart move to skip some tournaments after Miami in order to get better prepared for clay.
I believe he needs no motive to make a good result here,” Djokovic concluded. Both Djokovic and Kecmanovic are playing at this week's Serbia Open in Belgrade. Kecmanovic defeated Richard Gasquet in the first round, while No. 1 seed Djokovic had a first round bye.