Novak Djokovic has acted as an inspiration for rising tennis sensation Hamad Medjedovic since he was 10 when they met in Serbia, their home country. Since then, Djokovic has also played a big role in smoothing the path for the younger Serbian to become a professional, especially with regards to financial support and motivation.
This season, Hamad Medjedovic reached 110 in the world ranking after making it to the semifinals of the Astana Open, in which he defeated former US Open champion Dominic Thiem and then the Gstaad Open, a huge leapfrog from the 674 position he was in 2021.
Who is Novak Djokovic’s protege Hamad Medjedovic?
Hamad Medjedovic is a Serbian professional tennis player, born on July 18, 2003, in Belgrade. The Serbian young star achieved a career-high junior ranking of No. 9. He earned this ranking after winning titles in 2019 at the Berlin Grade 1 and New Delhi Grade 2 tournaments, where he didn’t drop a set throughout the competition. Additionally, Medjedovic reached the quarterfinals of the Junior French Open in 2020.
In his ATP tour debut in Belgrade 2021, Hamad Medjedovic lost to finalist Alex Molcan. Later that year, he achieved a significant victory by defeating a Top-70 player, Oscar Otte, during his ATP Challenger debut in Belgrade as a 17-year-old in April.
Medjedovic earned his first ATP Rankings point after winning back-to-back titles on the ITF World Tennis Tour in Antalya, helping him break into the Top 500. On October 16 in the same year, Medjedovic reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 102.
Hamad Medjedovic unexpectedly went unbeaten through the group stages and then won the final to win the ATP Next Gen Finals in Jeddah, becoming the first Serbian to lay the achievement. With that victory, a senior and younger Serbian has now won both the ATP Next Gen title and Nitto ATP Finals title in the same year.
Hamad Medjedovic defeats Arthur Fils to win Next Gen ATP title
Hamad Medjedovic played aggressively to defeat Arthur Fils 3-4 (6), 4-1, 4-2, 3-4(9), 4-1 after two hours and 11 minutes in front of a packed crowd in King Abdullah Sports City. The 20-year-old Serbian took large cuts at the ball, won 88 per cent of points on his first delivery and converted his third match point to win the Next Gen ATP title.
The victory also capped that great end of the season for Serbians after Novak Djokovic clinched a record seventh Nitto ATP Finals crown in Turin in November.
“Two of us from Serbia. He won the big Masters, the real one, and I won the Next Gen. Obviously it’s a huge thing and I’m happy to follow in his footsteps in some way,” Medjedovic said.
Hamad Medjedovic earned his biggest tournament, taking home a tournament-record $514,000 in prize money. The Serbian sits at No. 110 in the ATP Rankings, making him the lowest-ranked champion in tournament history, while he joins the Top 10 stars like Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the list of Next Gen ATP Finals titlist.
“I can’t believe I have won this title, but it’s going to give me a lot of confidence for 2024,”Medjedovic said. “Arthur is an amazing player; he’s Top 40 for a reason, so I’m really happy. It was tough after the first set. Thank God I recovered and I was just trying to stay relaxed as much as I could and I managed to do it in the end.”
Fans and tennis lovers are hoping that Medjedovic continues to perform well and win more titles and perhaps replace the Serbian big legend Novak Djokovic when he retires.
