Niki Pilic-Tennis Academy
He says:
Niki Pilic was born in Split in 1939 and decided indeed quiet late to dedicate his whole live only to the professional tennis sport. Before he devoted himself fully to tennis, he finished the grammar school, graduated in a shipbuilding study and studied law.Niki Pilic has truly realized all dreams of a tennis pro, as a player as well as a coach.As a player (ATP Nr. 4) he reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon and Rome, the final of Paris and was the first winner of the Stockholm Open. In his carrier he defeated all the big names of tennis sport as Borg, Vilas and Connor and in 1973 when he was nearly 34 years old he even succeeded to play in the final of the French Open in Paris once again.Niki Pilic was at the service for the DTB since 1982. From 1985 to 1997 he was Captain of the German Davis Cup Team and helped it in 1988, 1989 and 1993 to triumph. Boris Becker, Michael Stich and Goran Ivanisevic have been trained by him as single players. In 1989 and in 1994 the German Team won the World Team Cup under the leadership of Niki Pilic.Since the year 2000 Niki Pilic is Team Captain of his home country Croatia. Under his leadership Croatia was promoted from the 3. liga of the Davis Cup straight to the world group and already defeated the American Davis Cup Team three times and the German Team once.In December 2005 Niki Pilic finally achieved the unbelievable. The Croatian Davis Cup Team won under his leadership the final against Slovakia, the first Davis Cup triumph of the Croatians in history.Furthermore Niki Pilic is the first Team Captain who won the Davis Cup 4 times within his career and on top with two different nations.Today he puts his entire energy in the discovery and development of young talents, to give them the same chance as he has got in his live:
A dream comes true.
His Students:
Male
Novak Djokovic
Ernest Gulbis
Lado Chikhladze
Kostantin Kravchuk
Sören Goritzka
Female
Sandra Klösel
Masa Zec-Peskiric
Ana Jovanovic
Tadeja Majeric
Natasa Zoric
Kristina Steiert
His Credo:
"work and discipline"
I Say;
Nothing can be more true about Niki Pilic then his credo. A man with bags of experience and passion. He knows every trick from the book so if your child is upper- middle class and spoilt who uses every single excuse for their short comings don't go to Niki. His team has got fantastic depth of knowledge and experience and if your child is a hard working honest person Niki Pilic Academy is a good place to be.
We should not forget in the time that Crotia and Serbia were in war Niki was bringing Crotian Davis Cup Team to the top level and at the same time solely responsible for bringing up young Serbian tennis players. This speaks volumes for Niki Pilic as a person.
P.S. Recently Novak Djokovic bought a Franchise of ATP Tournament to be held at his birth place Belgrade, Serbia. And surprise, surprise he has named his old coach Niki Pilic to be the Director of the Tournament.
So don't tell me that some players' forget their coaches or that petty quarrels can stop good people doing good things.
contact:
http://www.tennis-academy-niki-pilic.de/en/
