Nikola Pilić

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Nikola "Niki" Pilić (born 27 August 1939) is a Croatian former professional tennis player who competed for SFR Yugoslavia.

He was one of the Handsome Eight.[1] Pilić was ranked world No. 6 in January 1968 and world No. 7 for 1967 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph.[2][3]

Early life

Pilić was born in Split, Banovina of Croatia, Kingdom of Yugoslavia to Krsto Pilić and Danica Tomić-Ferić five days before the outbreak of World War II that began on 1 September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland.

The youngster took up tennis during the summer of 1952.[4] Thirteen years of age at this point, he began practicing on the Firule tennis club clay courts in parallel to studying shipbuilding at the streamlined high school in Split. Upon graduating he attempted to enrol at a community college (Script error: No such module "Lang".) in Zagreb, but due to not meeting the entrance criteria ended up in Novi Sad where he studied government administration (Script error: No such module "Lang".).

Tennis career

In 1964 he won the Moscow International Championships against countryman Boro Jovanović in five sets.[5] Pilic reached the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1967, beating Roy Emerson.[6] Then open tennis arrived and Pilić was one of the Handsome Eight, a group of players signed by Lamar Hunt in 1968 for the newly formed professional World Championship Tennis (WCT) group.[7]

In 1970, Pilić won the Bristol Open or West of England Championships defeating Tom Okker in a long match, Graham Stilwell, Marty Riessen, John Newcombe in a close match, and Rod Laver in the final.

Also that season, Pilić won the men's doubles title at the US Open with his French partner Pierre Barthès by defeating the Australians John Newcombe and Rod Laver in four sets. His best singles performance at a Grand Slam tournament came in 1973 when he reached the final of the French Open, losing to Ilie Năstase in straight sets.[8]

Pilić was the catalyst to the 1973 Wimbledon boycott. In May 1973, the Yugoslav tennis federation alleged that Pilić had refused to represent them in a Davis Cup tie against New Zealand earlier that month. Pilić denied the charge, but was suspended by the federation, and the suspension was upheld by the ILTF, albeit decreased from nine months to one month, meaning that he could not enter the Wimbledon Championships. In protest at the suspension, 81 of Pilić's fellow professionals, organized into the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and including 13 of the 16 seeds, withdrew from the 1973 Wimbledon Championships.[9][10][11]

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Loss 1973 French Open Clay Template:Flagicon Ilie Năstase 3–6, 3–6, 0–6

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 1962 Wimbledon Grass Template:Flagicon Boro Jovanović Template:Flagicon Bob Hewitt
Template:Flagicon Fred Stolle		 2–6, 7–5, 2–6, 4–6
Win 1970 US Open Grass Template:Flagicon Pierre Barthès Template:Flagicon Roy Emerson
Template:Flagicon Rod Laver		 6–3, 7–6, 4–6, 7–6

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Template:Performance key

Tournament 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 <templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" /> SR Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Australian Open A A 2R A A A A A A A 3R 2R A A A A A A A A 0 / 3
French Open A 4R 2R 3R 4R 3R A A A 2R A 1R A F A 3R A 1R 2R 0 / 11
Wimbledon 2R 3R 2R 1R 2R A 1R SF 1R 1R 2R 3R A A 3R 1R 4R 3R A 0 / 15
US Open A A 1R A A 1R A 3R 4R 3R 4R 4R 4R QF A A A A A 0 / 9
Strike rate 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 4 0 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 38

Note: The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.

Post-playing

After retiring from playing tennis professionally, Pilić began coaching and became the first captain to win the Davis Cup trophy for three nations: Germany in 1988, 1989 and 1993, Croatia in 2005 and Serbia in 2010. He's been working with Serbia Davis Cup team in the adviser role since 2007, and won the Davis Cup title in 2010.

He runs a tennis academy in Oberschleißheim near Munich where he resides. Players such as Michael Stich, Novak Djokovic, Ernests Gulbis and Anastasija Sevastova developed and came through the Pilic academy.[12]

Personal

In 1970, Pilić married Serbian actress Mija Adamović. The couple has children together.[13]

In 2020 he was awarded the Golden Medal of Merits of Republic of Serbia.[14]

References

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  1. ↑ Deutsche Welle Croatian language service 19 July 2010 Nikola Pilić – 'Prus sa Balkana'
  2. ↑ Cite error: Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".
  3. ↑ United States Lawn Tennis Association (1972). Official Encyclopedia of Tennis (First edition), p. 428.
  4. ↑ Nikola Pilić: Krao sam novac od majke da kupim reket;Blic, 29 May 2011
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Četiri decenije sa Nikolom; Blic, 25 September 2010
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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External links

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Template:US Open men's doubles champions Template:Croatian Athlete of the Year (men)

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