Nikola Pilic, who helped Novak Djokovic become arguably the greatest player of all time, has died at the age of 87. The former tennis star reached a French Open final and played in a Wimbledon doubles final before retiring in 1978 after a decade-long career. He later turned to coaching and was one of the key men behind Djokovic’s incredible rise to supremacy.
A young Djokovic was trained at Pilic’s academy after being taken under the Croatian’s wing at the age of 10. He once said: “Nikola is my tennis father. A mentor. A man who selflessly shared his knowledge and experience about tennis and life with me. Niki’s lovely wife Mija and he welcomed me with open arms to their tennis academy in Germany and treated me like their own child.”
Pilic was also considered a key person in the creation of the ATP and the modern tennis system. He achieved great success at the Davis Cup, winning five times as a coach with Germany, Croatia and Serbia.
He also won the US Open doubles title as a player alongside Pierre Bartey, beating the Australian duo of Rod Laver and Roy Emerson in the final.
At times, Pilic’s career was marked by controversy. He was suspended in 1973 for refusing to play for Yugoslavia at the Davis Cup, a decision which had major consequences as 81 players ended up boycotting Wimbledon as a show of support.
Three years ago, he described his protege Djokovic as the greatest player of all time and suggested that a lot of people in the western world were bothered by his success.
“I think his success has hurt the West in a different way,” Pilic told Croatian media. “By their understanding of things, the level Djokovic has reached was reserved for someone from the West.
“And then comes a guy from a small country to dominate the world of tennis. Had Roger Federer done what Djokovic did at the US Open in 2020, he would not have been disqualified. [The West] has a problem with Djokovic being the best.
“Djokovic is just phenomenal, he has worked a lot, with no shortcuts. I remember that Serbian journalists were all over me in 2019 trying to get me to say that Novak is the best. I did not want to say it until he won Wimbledon this year.
“The day he did that, I took a complete and thorough look at the numbers. Novak has got the same number of Slam titles as [Rafael] Nadal and Federer, better head-to-head against both, and he is going towards 350 weeks at the top of the rankings.
“Djokovic has won the most Masters titles, he is the only player to have won every Slam at least twice, and at one point he had almost 17,000 ATP points.
“In that moment, he accumulated more points than [Andy] Murray, Nadal and Federer combined. I am not being biased, Novak is the best of all time.”
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Content Source: www.express.co.uk