The 21 & Under Club renews Vondrousova, welcomes Kecmanovic

Representing nations steeped in tennis success, both are chasing their own paths to glory.

Published Aug 02, 2020

As we reveal this year's edition of The 21 & Under Club, we'd like to call your attention to Team Luke Hope for Minds, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports families with children who have suffered an acquired brain injury. Headed by former Texas Tech tennis coach Tim Siegel—whose son, Luke, suffered severe head and chest trauma from a golf cart accident which resulted in an anoxic brain injury—Team Luke Hope for Minds has lost numerous fundraising opportunities throughout 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To learn more about the organization, and for information on how to donate, go to teamlukehopeforminds.org

The 21 & Under Club renews Vondrousova, welcomes Kecmanovic

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**WTA Rank: 18

UTR Rank: 28**
What she's done since last summer: After reaching her maiden major final at Roland Garros, a left wrist injury cropped up during Wimbledon, denying the Czech an opportunity to build off her success in Paris.

From Tomas Berdych to Petra Kvitova to Karolina Pliskova, the Czech game in recent years has been an attacking game, a power game, a blast-first-and-ask-questions-later game. But the country’s most recent rising star, Marketa Vondrousova, seems dead set on ignoring that tradition. By doing so, she may start a new one entirely.

It’s not that the 21-year-old native of Sokolov is any less aggressive than her countrymen and women. She’s every bit the deft and eye-popping shot-maker that they are. It’s just that she has a different method of putting her opponents on the run. Instead of a 130-m.p.h. serve or a Howitzer forehand, Vondrousova uses a delicately carved drop shot as her weapon of choice. And she uses it over and over and over again. In the past, players have typically employed the drop shot as a surprise tactic; with the young Czech, the surprise comes when she hits anything else.

To Vondrousova, the drop shot is like snow is to the Eskimo: Where most of us hit it one way and one way only, she has a seemingly infinite variety of versions in her arsenal. She can hit a drop shot with extra English, or with no English at all; from behind the baseline or in front of it; straight down the line, or at a teasingly sharp angle crosscourt; with plenty of net clearance or with virtually none at all; as a point-ending kill shot, or as a mid-rally surprise. And just when her opponent begins to anticipate them and track them down, Vondrousova will add just enough spin to make the ball kick backward and out of their reach again.

Vondrousova started playing tennis with her father when she was 4 and moved to Prague on her own at 15 to begin training seriously. She describes her personality as “quiet” and “calm,” and those words extend to her on-court persona as well. By necessity: You have to be as calm as a surgeon wielding a scalpel to play the way she does. By the time she’s through with her opponents, they might feel as if they’ve been nicked to death by a thousand tiny slices. At last year’s tournament in Rome, she upset Simona Halep for the second time that season; by the third set, the Romanian needed a trainer to rub down her overworked hamstring.

A month after that match, Vondrouosova reached the summit of her career so far: the final at Roland Garros. But that’s as high as she has been allowed to climb. At Wimbledon she injured her wrist, which eventually needed surgery and put an end to her 2019 season. All of which means that Vondrousova will be among the young players that WTA fans will be most avidly following when the tours resume. We’ll want to see if she can win Grand Slams and rise in the rankings; and we’ll want to see her do it her own way.

—Steve Tignor

The 21 & Under Club renews Vondrousova, welcomes Kecmanovic

“After Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova, Marketa is now the one to look for. She’s already an awesome player and she definitely has it in her to win a Grand Slam. She just needs to work on mental toughness and just keep working hard on adding different elements to her game.”

—Four-time major singles champion Hana Mandilkova after following Vondrousova's runner-up effortat Roland Garros

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The 21 & Under Club renews Vondrousova, welcomes Kecmanovic

**ATP Rank: 47

UTR Rank: 35**
What he's done since last summer: At ATP events, was a finalist at 2019 Antalya; semifinalist at 2020 Doha and New York.

Grit. Focused. Hungry. These three words encapsulate 20-year-old Miomir Kecmanovic.

Kecmanovic’s rise has been fascinating to watch. Born in Belgrade, he moved to the famed IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. at the age of 13. Honing his skills, the investment soon paid off as he won the Orange Bowl in 2016, and finished the year as the No. 1-ranked junior. Since turning pro in 2017, he’s made great strides ranking-wise, currently sitting at No. 47—his career-high.

According to IMG Academy's director of player development, former world No. 5 Jimmy Arias, Kecmanovic is a quick study.

“He has improved his serve enough and his groundstrokes are really solid,” Arias said of Kecmanovic. “He’s tough to beat. He hits the ball deep, consistently, he moves well and obviously competes well.”

A certified fighter, Kecmanovic is not one to shy away from a challenge. His weapon of choice: lethal double-handed backhand. Much like his well-regarded compatriot Djokovic, the youngster’s all-court game is hard to penetrate. He plays aggressive, covers the court very well, and his defense skills are just as enviable.

“I don't see him getting tight very often,” Miro Hrvatin, Kecmanovic's coach for the past three years, told ATPtour.com. “He believes in his strokes. I think whenever the ball is in play he has a chance.”

Sharing a hometown with the world No. 1 obviously has it perks. The young Serb has benefited from his frequently practice sessions with Djokovic.

“Obviously sometimes you don't feel like doing anything. You feel like not practicing or maybe quitting,” Kecmanovic said. “And to hear [Djokovic] saying, 'No, you have to keep going. Push through it,' give some encouraging advice like that, I think that helped me a lot.”

In his few years on tour, Kecmanovic has proven he can compete with big names which include victories over Alexander Zverev and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Following in Djokovic's footsteps is a huge undertaking, but Kecmanovic is well on his way to one day joining the 17-time major champion in elite company.

—Ashley Ndebele