Sports run in the blood! Daniil Medvedev will take on America’s Aleksander Kovacevic in the first round of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships. The 25-year-old American tennis player made his debut at a major tournament (AO) earlier this year and currently, he’s ranked 86th in the world. From watching his tennis idol, Novak Djokovic live on TV and getting inspired to take up the racquet sport then getting the chance to play against the Serb at the 2023 French Open. His journey to the Top 100 has truly been amazing, and his parents have been with him through thick and thin. They also have an interesting life story!

His father, Milan is from Serbia and his mother is from Bosnia. Both of his parents played table tennis in their early days and were national ping pong tournament players. They met each other at a countrywide tournament when Milan was 21 years old and Milanka was just 19. Milanka, who was a top division player in table tennis in ex-Yugoslavia, was once invited to play and coach for the Catalan Table Tennis Association in Barcelona. She coached some of Spain’s top junior players for almost two years before moving to Italy to become the federal coach of the Italian Table Tennis Association (1998-1993).

At the end of 1993, she decided to move to Los Angeles to be with Milan who had then just graduated with his Ph.D from UCLA. Both of them moved to New York City almost a year later and had to eventually trade their table tennis paddles with tennis racquets. Elaborating more on that, Milan said, “We sort of switched to more tennis when we came to the United States. We would go to Central Park to play tennis and bring people with us.” At present, Aleksander Kovacevic’s father works as a software engineer while his mother has now become an injury prevention therapist.

After the birth of Aleksander Kovacevic on 29 August 1998, Milan made sure he didn’t repeat the mistakes of starting a bit with his kids. He made sure Aleks and his younger sister Lena started their tennis journeys as early as possible. “I always regret not starting earlier. So I made them start at five in tennis because I thought that was a mistake on me not starting earlier,” Kovacevic’s father said during an interview. Although table tennis and lawn tennis are two different sports, Milan thinks there are a few similarities as well.

He said, “For me, Federer style tennis has a lot of similarities to table tennis…working with them on techniques and strokes and everything and a lot of ideas come from table tennis.” Both Milan and Milanka have played an enormous role in making their son’s game more perfect right from a young age. What are Aleksander Kovacevic’s thoughts on his parent’s contribution to his career?

Aleksander Kovacevic gives credit to his parents for bringing perfection to his game

During an interview, Aleksander Kovacevic recalled all the lessons that he had learned from his parents right from his childhood. “My parents were very technical in everything they did, my dad especially, a perfectionist kinda. So, growing up when I was young and developing my skills, he made sure everything was kind of right and perfect before I shaped my game to where I am at today,” Kovacevic. His talent was spotted right from a young age.

Elaborating on her super-talented kid, Milanka revealed, “Even when he didn’t go to finals [of tournaments] people would go watch him because they liked his game.” She recalled the moments, “When people would see him in Central Park, they would say, ‘Oh my God, this is little Federer’.” His journey to the biggest stages of the game is equally interesting as compared to their parent’s life story. Do you think he can give a tough challenge to Medvedev on Monday (July 1)?