Zagreb, Croatia – Croatian Tennis Great Nikola Pilić, the first captain to led three countries to Davis Cup Glory and who trained Novak Djokovic in his academy, died. He was 86.
The Croatian tennis club said Pilić died on Monday.
Pilić was a French open singles second in 1973 and the catalyst for the Wimbledon boycott that year.
Yugoslavia Tennis officials accused Pilić of refusal to play a Davis Cup against New -Zealand. He denied it but was still suspended. The International Lawn Tennis Federation (now the ITF) supported the Yugoslav decision, but reduced its suspension to a month – but that included Wimbledon.
Because Pilić was supported by the new Association of Tennis Professionals, Boycotting 12 of the 16 top seeds and a total of 81 players Wimbledon.
Pilić was already a star when Tennis became completely professional in 1968. When the American businessman Lamar Hunt supported a new professional tour called World Championship Tennis, Pilić, John Newcombe and Tony Roche were signed the first eight men’s players – called the handsome eight.
Pilić won nine singles titles and reached a highest singles ranking list of No. 6. He lost the French Open -Final of Iliy Nastase. His six Doubles titles include the US Open from 1970 with Pierre Barthes against Newcombe and Rod Laver in a final of four set.
After his retirement in 1978, Pilić coached the Davis Cup as a non-playing captain with Germany of Boris Becker (1988, 1989, 1993), Croatia (2005) and Serbia (2010).
Future stars that passed his academy near Munich were Michael Stich, Goran Ivanisevic and Djokovic, who called Pilić his mentor.
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