Nikola 'Niki' Pilic – Mr. Davis Cup

Novak Djokovic, Viktor Troicki, Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic became national heroes after they won first Davis Cup trophy for Serbia, defeating France in the final of the oldest international men’s tennis competition. However, there is a man behind this great success and his name is Nikola Pilic. This former Novak Djokovic’s coach, working with Serbia Davis Cup team in the advisor role, became the only tennis expert to win this trophy for three different countries – Germany, Croatia and now Serbia.

Nikola ‘Niki’ Pilic was born on August 27th 1939. in Split. During 60′s and 70′s he was one of the first professional tennis players, competing for ex-Yugoslavia. In 1962. Nikola Pilic and Boro Jovanovic won Wimbledon doubles title. Eight years later, paired with Frenchman Pierre Barthes, Pilic won another Grand Slam doubles title – the U.S. Open. In singles competition, he played 1973. Roland Garros final but lost to Romanian Ilie Nastase.

After being retired in 1978., Nikola Pilic began the coaching career. He was always strict and demanded discipline from his trainees. But guess what? It paid off! The era of Pilic’s successes started in 1982., when he became a manager of the German Tennis Federation. With Pilic as a team captain, Germany won Davis Cup trophy three times – in 1988, 1989. and 1993.

Back then he was working with stars such as Boris Becker and Michael Stich. At the 1992. Barcelona Olympics, Nikola Pili? had a tough job to train Becker and Stich, a great rivals and completely different characters, as a team in men’s doubles competition. ”I even had to lie to them every day in individual conversations to keep both of them happy”, he revealed many years later. Once again, his tactics proved successful as Becker and Stich won gold medal!

Nikola Pilic became the coach of Croatian Davis Cup team in 2000. Croatia was ranked very low back then, in Zone Group III, but with Pilic’s leadership, it was promoted to the World Group. In 2005, ‘golden team’ – Ivan Ljubicic, Mario Ancic, Goran Ivanisevic and Ivo Karlovic – beat Slovakia in Bratislava and won the precious Cup! Pilic got his fourth trophy and the nickname Mr. Davis Cup.

Parallel with leading Davis Cup teams, Niki Pilic ran tennis academy in Germany near Munich. One of his students was Novak Djokovic, who met the legendary coach for the first time as 12-year old boy. He was away from home for three months and during that time Nikola looked after him as if Nole was his own child. In 2007. Djokovic approached to his former coach and offered him to become Serbian Davis Cup team consultant.

The rest is, as the say, the history. In 2010, Serbia reached the final after beating the United States, Croatia and the Czech Republic. Lead by World No. 3 Djokovic, Serbia then defeated France, causing euphoria in Belgrade! After this great victory, team captain Bogdan Obranovic described Pilic’s merits as immense, but Mr. Davis Cup emphasized that amazing team spirit and friendship between players were crucial for such big success.

As a Croat, Nikola Pilic raised the controversy when he accepted job in Serbian team. Now, after winning trophy with that team, 71-year old replies to those critics: ”I am an athlete, not a politician. I know no boundaries.”