ABOUT NIKI PILIC

Niki Pilic was born on 29.08.1939 in Split, Croatia. Starting playing tennis was due to chance: when he was 13, he swapped his bicycle for a friend's tennis racket. From that moment on he knew his vocation- he wanted to be a tennis pro.

He started playing as an amateur before there was such a thing as professional tennis and was one of the founding members of the first professional league called “The Handsome Eight“, along with Rod Laver, Roger Taylor, John Newcombe, Cliff Drysdale, Pierre Barth?, Dennis Ralston and Butch Buchholz.

His best ranking in the WTC League, the predecessor of the ATP was number 4. He was also the reason for the famous Wimbledon-Boycott in 1973 which resulted in the foundation of the ATP, of which he was one the founding member.

His best results, for example, were the finals of the French Open, winner of the US-Open / GrandSlam-doubles, semifinals in Wimbledon and Rome, and victories in Stockholm and Munich.

He was the German Davis Cup Captain from 1985 until 1997, and led Germany to victory three times: 1988, 1989 and 1993.

From 2000 until 2006 Pilic was Croatian Davis Cup Captain and won the Davis Cup with Croatia in 2005.

Only in 2010 he has worked as a consultant for the Serbian team for the Davis Cup 2010 in Belgrad which brought him the fifth victory and Davis Cup star.

This makes him the only person to have won the Davis Cup with three different nations and making his Davis Cup victory total five.

Boris Becker, Michael Stich and Goran Ivanisevic were amongst the individual players he has coached throughout his career.

Starting with the foundation of the Niki Pilic Tennis Academy in 1997, he has brought out players like Novak Djokovic, Ernests Gulbis and Ivo Karlovic who profited from his experience as a coach and player.

In his 30 years as a coach, Niki Pilic has coached 40 players into the ATP-Top 100.

The reason for his success lies in his all-encompassing attitude towards the players: He not only coaches them from the stand, but physically plays with them every day on the court, teaching them technique, improving physical fitness, speed, coordination, reflexes, and also teaching mental strength, behavior, fairness, body language and personality on and off court.