Serbia has a growing successor to Novak Djokovic. The 19-year-old hopeful has joined the ranks of the best

Only real tennis enthusiasts who regularly follow the challenger scene will probably know his name. But we may hear a lot about him in the future. We are talking about the still nineteen-year-old Serbian talent Hamad Medjedovic, who won his second challenger tournament.

It was his victory in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, that made him one of the four most successful Serbian tennis players in their teens. Of course, the best of the best, Novak Djokovic, cannot be missing from the list.

Djokovic is a mentor and a huge role model for the up-and-coming Medjedovic. The former junior number 9 was noticed by the Serbian legend after his success among young talents and offered him a background at Belgrade’s The Novak Academy.

“He helped me a lot, including finances. He wants me to improve my physical and mental readiness. He tells me I should focus on that more than the results, ” Medjedovic said in a recent interview.

The young Serbian is also trying to get closer to his role model. His biggest weapon is his serve, which flies over 215 km/h. He then tries to end exchanges quickly with accurate and hard hits.

Medjedovic’s breakthrough among adults came last year, when he broke into the top 300 of the world rankings and won his first clay-court challenger in Ludenscheid, Germany, in July.

It is the crushed brick courts that are the favourite surface of the native of the town on the border of Serbia and Montenegro. On clay he managed to dominate the tournament in Hungary mentioned in the introduction.

He started this season on the hard surface and did not do badly at all. On a less popular surface, he reached the semi-finals in Bengaluru, India.

After his last winning campaign in Fehervar, Medjedovic has already moved into the second hundred of the world rankings and his hard work is starting to pay off.

Besides Djokovic, the most successful Serbian teenagers include Janko Tipsarevic and Miomir Kečmanovic. It is the latter who was supposed to be the future Serbian number one, but so far he is not quite living up to expectations.

Medjedovic has a good chance. The main thing for him will be to be a mentally balanced player and a versatile player who can play on all surfaces.

Then he will be able to think about a higher ranking in the world rankings. He will definitely progress much better under the patronage of Novak Djokovic.

Sources: ATP, The New Indian Express, Twitter