Niki Pilic

Full name: Nikola Pilic
Nickname: Niki

Height
Born	Subscribe now This information and data is not available because you are not our subscriber yet. Please click here and get full access to the entire database!
Weight
Plays
Bio	He is a Croatian former professional tennis player who competed for SFR Yugoslavia. He was one of the Handsome Eight. Pilić was ranked world No. 6 in January 1968 and world No. 7 for 1967 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph. Pilić was born in Split to Krsto Pilić and Danica Tomić-Ferić five days before the outbreak of World War II that began on September 1, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. The youngster took up tennis during the summer of 1952. Thirteen years of age at this point, he began practicing on the Firule tennis club clay courts in parallel to studying shipbuilding at the streamlined high school in Split. Upon graduating he attempted to enrol at a community college (viša škola) in Zagreb, but due to not meeting the entrance criteria ended up in Novi Sad where he studied government administration. Pilic reached the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1967, beating Roy Emerson. Then open tennis arrived and Pilić was one of the Handsome Eight, a group of players signed by Lamar Hunt in 1968 for the newly formed professional World Championship Tennis (WCT) group. In 1970, Pilić won the men's doubles title at the US Open with his French partner Pierre Barthès by defeating the Australians John Newcombe and Rod Laver in four sets. His best singles performance at a Grand Slam tournament came in 1973 when he reached the final of the French Open, losing to Ilie Năstase in straight sets. Pilić was the catalyst to the 1973 Wimbledon boycott. In May 1973, the Yugoslav tennis federation alleged that Pilić had refused to represent them in a Davis Cup tie against New Zealand earlier that month. Pilić denied the charge, but was suspended by the federation, and the suspension was upheld by the ILTF, albeit decreased from nine months to one month, meaning that he could not enter the Wimbledon Championships. In protest at the suspension, 81 of Pilić's fellow professionals, organized into the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and including 13 of the 16 seeds, withdrew from the 1973 Wimbledon Championships.

Tournament	AO	RG	W	US	Win-Loss
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		All-time					Amateur era					Open Era
		Total	A	R	W	U	Total	A	R	W	U	Total	A	R	W	U
1	GS Appearances	Subscribe now This information and data is not available because you are not our subscriber yet. Please click here and get full access to the entire database!
2	GS Matches
3	GS Appearances Representing The Same Nation
4	Represented different nations
5	Years Between 2 GS Appearances
6	Years Between The First And Last GS Appearance
7	Decades Between The First And Last GS Appearance
8	GS Final Appearances
9	GS Final Appearances Representing The Same Nation
10	Represented different nations in the GS Finals
11	Years Between 2 GS Final Appearances
12	Years Between The First And Last GS Final Appearance
13	Decades Between The First And Last GS Final Appearance
14	GS Titles