{"id":193279,"date":"2025-11-19T23:01:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=193279"},"modified":"2025-11-19T23:02:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:02:55","slug":"dokovic-paid-tribute-to-pilic-in-bologna-emotional-speech-by-the-greatest-of-all-time-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/dokovic-paid-tribute-to-pilic-in-bologna-emotional-speech-by-the-greatest-of-all-time-video\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0110OKOVI\u0106 PAID TRIBUTE TO PILI\u0106 IN BOLOGNA: Emotional speech by the greatest of all time! (VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>Novak \u0110okovi\u0107 appeared in Bologna at the Davis Cup final (Final 8) to pay tribute to his mentor, the legendary Nikola Pili\u0107, who recently passed away.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u0110okovi\u0107 delivered an emotional speech on the court, surrounded by former national team members and tennis players who<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Serb did not hide how much the news of the death of the man who crucially influenced the development of his career \u2013 both as a tennis player and as a person \u2013 affected him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Thank you for coming. This is a moment of mixed emotions for me, honestly. When I received the news, or when we all heard, for me it was one of the saddest moments, because Niki had a huge influence on my life, my career, and the careers of all the gentlemen who are here on the court. And I have to say that there is no better place than the Davis Cup to celebrate the legacy of Niki Pili\u0107, who will probably forever remain the only Davis Cup captain in the history of this most important team competition in tennis. Winning the Davis Cup with three different nations \u2014 Germany, Croatia, and Serbia \u2014 is an incredible feat that will probably never be repeated. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Niki. Thank you also to the family for being here. We will always remember you. Niki, we love you.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\"><p lang=\"in\" dir=\"ltr\">Novak Djokovic, in Bologna to honour his mentor, Niki Pilic \ud83e\udef6<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DavisCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DavisCup<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AUBH3foqPk\">pic.twitter.com\/AUBH3foqPk<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Davis Cup (@DavisCup) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DavisCup\/status\/1991156127770325279?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 19, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Nikola Pili\u0107 was one of the most influential figures in European tennis. As a coach and selector, he created generations of champions and laid the foundations for modern tennis development in the Balkans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His most incredible record remains winning the Davis Cup with three different national teams \u2013 a feat that no one before him, and probably no one after him, will repeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\"><p lang=\"in\" dir=\"ltr\">Novak Djokovic, in Bologna to honour his mentor, Niki Pilic \ud83e\udef6<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DavisCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DavisCup<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AUBH3foqPk\">pic.twitter.com\/AUBH3foqPk<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Davis Cup (@DavisCup) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DavisCup\/status\/1991156127770325279?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 19, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Novak repeatedly emphasized that it was Pili\u0107 who opened the door to professional tennis for him. He spent key formative years at his academy in Obersdorf, acquiring the work habits, character, and work philosophy that he later perfected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u0110okovi\u0107&#8217;s arrival in Bologna, despite the strenuous season and physical problems, was a sign of how difficult this loss was for him personally, and the greatest of all time had previously spoken about Pili\u0107 on social media, at the funeral, at the tournament in Athens, and wherever else he managed to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><mark style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#d21414\" class=\"has-inline-color\">MORE TOPICS:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/belgrade-university-advanced-on-the-shanghai-list-highly-ranked-in-18-scientific-fields\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">BELGRADE UNIVERSITY ADVANCED ON THE SHANGHAI LIST: Highly ranked in 18 scientific fields!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/cadastral-office-abolished-the-protection-of-the-general-staff-building-they-are-no-longer-a-cultural-asset-because-of-trump-towers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">CADASTRAL OFFICE ABOLISHED THE PROTECTION OF THE GENERAL STAFF BUILDING: They are no longer a cultural asset because of \u201cTrump Towers\u201d!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/after-nine-days-transporter-milomir-jacimovic-ends-hunger-strike-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">AFTER NINE DAYS: Transporter Milomir Ja\u0107imovi\u0107 ends hunger strike! 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(VIDEO)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong>Source<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>B92, <strong>Photo:<\/strong> Printscreen X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Novak \u0110okovi\u0107 appeared in Bologna at the Davis Cup final (Final 8) to pay tribute to his mentor, the legendary Nikola Pili\u0107, who recently passed away. \u0110okovi\u0107 delivered an emotional speech on the court, surrounded by former national team members and tennis players who The Serb did not hide how much the news of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":193280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3310,9637,9638,87,8770,251,91,113,252,15],"class_list":["post-193279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-bolonja","tag-dejvis-kup","tag-emotivni-govor","tag-italija","tag-nikola-pilic","tag-novak-dokovic-3","tag-sport","tag-srbija","tag-tenis","tag-video","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193326,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193279\/revisions\/193326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}