Very sad news is coming from Croatia, where Nikola Pilić, the famous selector of their national team and Novak Djokovic’s “tennis father,” has passed away. Nikola Pilić died at the age of 87 in Rijeka, Croatian media report.
Nikola Pilić was a legend not only of local but also of European and world tennis. He laid the foundations of the ATP, bringing changes that greatly influenced the development of the sport in which a Serbian player became the greatest of all time.
During his career, Pilić won the Davis Cup three times, all three with the German national team. At that time, he coached Boris Becker and Michael Stich, and he also won the Davis Cup with Croatia in 2005.
He didn’t stop there – he was also an advisor to the Serbian national team in 2010, when Serbia won the famous “Salad Bowl.”
The legendary Croat is also called Novak Djokovic’s tennis father, since young Novak was his student at the academy in Munich, while in 2020 Nikola Pilić was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit of the Republic of Serbia.
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Source: Telegraf, Foto: R.Z. / ATAImages