Who is Miomir Kecmanovic’s Coach?

Last Updated on August 23, 2022

One of the diamonds in world tennis and rising stars of the ATP right now, for sure is Serbian tennis player Miomir Kecmanovic.

Miomir was born on 31^st of August 1999 in Belgrade, Serbia. His parents, father Dragutin and mother Maja are much respected doctors, both abdominal surgeons.  Miomir’s first tennis steps were at age of 4 when his maternal grandfather took him to tennis camp Zlatibor, Serbia.

One of the biggest decisions in his life and starting a journey as a professional was made at age of 13, when accompanied only by his aunt Tanja, would leave Belgrade and head for Bradenton, Florida and the IMG Academy. There he trained with numerous coaches and used to practice a lot with former world No.4 Kei Nishikori.

 As a junior enjoyed a great success, finished the year 2016 as ITF Junior No.1 ranked tennis player and after turning pro he won one ATP and two Challenger titles. Growing up, his tennis idols were Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic against whom he was lucky to play, most recently at Wimbledon.

Who is Miomir Kecmanovic’s Current Coach?

Among numerous coaches from IMG Academy, Miomir eventually settled with a former Croatian tennis player, Miro Hrvatin. They are together more than a decade, since they met when Miomir as 9 years old came at Smrikva Bowl U-10 Tournament in Pula, Croatia.

Miro Hrvatin (43) was born on 23^rd of July 1979 in Valbandona, Croatia. During his playing career didn’t see any significant success. He played Croatian tennis league and won it twice with his club HATK Mladost, than Germany Oberliga and Slovenian tennis league. He had a chance to train and play alongside with players like Ivan Ljubicic and Ivo Karlovic.

Hrvatin became a professional tennis coach in year 2000, trained Croatian players Kristijan Mesaros and Ivan Cinkus, went to China for few years and trained most talented girl tennis players, but for the longest time in his career he devoted himself training Miomir, with whom he has had the greatest success.

“I’ve known him since he was nine, when we had a couple of practice sessions in Pula, Croatia where I lived back then. He came back there for the summer every year until he went to USA. In four years, we started our relationship.” said Miro Hrvatin in an interview for ATP tour magazine.

Under his mentorship, in December 2015, Miomir won the Orange Bowl against Stefanos Tsitsipas, reached the final at Junior US Open 2016 where he was defeated by Felix Auger-Aliassime and finished that year as ITF Junior No.1 ranked tennis player.

He became pro in year 2017 when he won three futures and his first challenger in Suzhou, China by beating Radu Albot, world No.113 at that time. Next year he won his second challenger in Shenzhen, China and during 2019 he earned his first ATP victory by defeating Leonardo Mayer at the Brisbane International and appeared in the main draw of all four Grand Slams.  As a crown of their cooperation, in September 2020 came the title in Austrian Open Kitzbuhel, which is part of ATP tour 250 series.

“Every player and every coach dreams to be Top 10 or No.1. You need to put a lot of work in, a lot of effort, and get a little bit of luck. We go step by step. I think there are things that we have to work on and if he improves one thing by one, we can make some steps forward very soon.” said Hrvatin on his work with Miomir Kecmanovic

Their journey together is still going on.

Second Coach of Miomir Kecmanovic

In order to maximize his potential, starting from February 2021 during the Latin American Swing, he started to collaborate with former world No.3 David Nalbandian.

David (40) was born on 1^st of January 1982 in Unquillo, Argentina. He started training tennis from a young age and when he was twelve years old he was the top tennis player in Argentina for his age group. As a junior, he won the Junior US Open 1998, by beating Roger Federer in the final and finished the year as No.3 in the world.

He turned pro in 2000, retired 2013, and during 13 years of playing tennis professionally, he won 11 titles and was highest ranked No.3 on 20^th of March 2006. His most significant results are winning Tennis masters Cup in 2005 by defeating Roger Federer, playing Wimbledon final year 2002 where he lost from Lleyton Hewitt, and three Davis Cup finals in 2006, 2008 and 2011 with Argentinean National Team. Although he was considered one of the most talented young players on tour, injuries, lack of consistency, and poor mental temperament have been cited as his biggest weaknesses that prevented him from achieving his full potential.

After retiring from tennis he began his driving career as a race car driver and frequently participated in Argentine Rally Championship. Also he made one appearance in the World Rally Championship and the Codasur South American Rally Championship. He preferred to race in Chevrolet Agile launched in 2009.

 He is now back on Tour as Kecmanovic’s Coach. During their collaboration alongside with Miro Hrvatin, Kecmanovic managed to rich his highest career, No.30 on 13^th of June 2022 and made his first fourth round at Major, which is his best result at a Grand Slam. He reached Indian Wells quarterfinal where lost to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz, and third round at French Open and Wimbledon where he was defeated by his idol and eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

“I am physically much better prepared now, I am able to reproduce a high level of tennis more consistently. Also, my way of thinking on the courtis different, mostly thanks to David. Earlier my game was one-dimensional, but now I feel that I have plan A, B and C. I hope to be able to work with him a lot.” said Miomir Kecmanovic on his new team member David Nalbandian.

Also Read:

• Who Is Tommy Paul’s Coach?
• Who is Felix Auger Aliassime’s Coach?
• Who is Borna Coric’s Coach?
• Who is Daniel Evans’ Coach?
• Who is Grigor Dimitrov’s coach?

Third Coach of Miomir Kecmanovic

Since September 2021 there is another coach in the team who does not get talked about enough and his name is Johan Ortegren.

He was born on 22^nd of March 1978 in Sweden and during his playing career he did not make any significant result. Made his ATP main draw debut at Swedish Open 1999, but mostly played on the Futures circuit reaching five finals and winning three titles. He also won two ITF doubles titles. Has a career high ATP ranking of 295.

After retirement as a professional, he joined the coaching staff at Magnus Norman’s Good to Great Tennis Academy in Sweden where he spent six years. There he worked with Grirog Dimitrov, as well as several other players from his homeland such as Michael Ymer. For almost a year now he is part of the Kecmanovic’s team, who likes his scouting of opponents the most.

“I like the tactical part for sure. Misa likes less info in general, you have to find the right stuff and if you give too much information then it gets complicated. Ultimately for Misa it is most important to focus on himself first. During our collaboration so far, he improved his shot selection – he doesn’t only rely on power now, he can open up the court with the angels, he can spin high.” said Ortegren about his biggest input brought to Miomir’s game.

Former conditional trainer of Miomir Kecmanovic

Until last year part of the team as conditional coach was former Croatian athlete, Dejan Vojnovic.

He is one of the few world athletes who have participated both in Summer (100 meters race) and Winter (bob-sled team) Olympic Games. After retirement he started career as conditional coach of tennis players and among others he prepared Dinara Safina, Dominika Cibulkova, Jelena Jankovic and Marcos Baghdatis. About his collaboration with Miomir kecmanovic he said

“When we started working together Misa was ranked 136. First year he ended 56^th and when we separated he was 39^th. He profiled in a top player, won Kitzbuhel, played Indian Wells quarterfinal. I believe that he will enter top 10 soon. We parted as friends.”   

Miomir Kecmanovic’s achievements with different coaches

We have collected in the table the data about the trophies won by Miomir Kecmanovic under the guidance of various coaches.