{"id":164899,"date":"2025-09-23T23:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T23:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164899\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T23:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T23:26:12","slug":"croatian-tennis-legend-nikola-pilic-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164899\/","title":{"rendered":"Croatian tennis legend Nikola Pili\u0107 passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                by <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/author\/admin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">croatiaweek<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    September 23, 2025<\/p>\n<p>                    in<\/p>\n<p>                    <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/category\/sport\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sport<\/a>                <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Croatia and the tennis world are mourning the loss of Nikola Pili\u0107, who has passed away in Rijeka at the age of 86, <a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/sport.hrt.hr\/tenis\/preminuo-nikola-pilic-legenda-hrvatskog-i-svjetskog-tenisa-12347754\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HRT<\/a> has reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Widely regarded as a trailblazer both on and off the court, Pili\u0107 leaves behind a legacy that shaped modern tennis and inspired generations of players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Born in Split in 1936, Pili\u0107 rose to prominence as a player in the 1960s and 70s. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He reached the Wimbledon semi-final in 1967, famously defeating Australian great Roy Emerson, before becoming one of the \u201cHandsome Eight\u201d \u2013 the group of players who helped usher in the professional era of tennis when they signed with Lamar Hunt\u2019s newly formed World Championship Tennis circuit in 1968.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">His greatest success on court came in 1970 when he defeated tennis icons John Newcombe and Rod Laver to win the Bristol Open. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">That same year, he partnered with Frenchman Pierre Barth\u00e8s to capture the US Open men\u2019s doubles title. Pili\u0107\u2019s finest singles achievement came in 1973 when he reached the French Open final, losing to Ilie N\u0103stase.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-158146\" class=\"size-full wp-image-158146\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Nikola_Pilic.jpeg\" alt=\"Nikola_Pilic\u0301\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1496\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-158146\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nikola Pilic\u0301 (Photo: Verhoeff, Bert \/ Anefo\/Dutch National Archives\/CC BY-SA 3.0 NL)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Beyond his playing career, Pili\u0107\u2019s influence was even greater as a coach and leader. He guided Croatia to its first Davis Cup triumph in 2005 and remains unique in world tennis for leading three different nations to Davis Cup glory: West Germany, Croatia and Serbia. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He was instrumental in the early development of Novak \u0110okovi\u0107, playing a key role in his rise to the very top of the sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Pili\u0107 also helped lay the foundations for the modern ATP, driving changes that professionalised tennis and ensured better conditions for players worldwide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Remembered as both a fierce competitor and a visionary leader, Nikola Pili\u0107\u2019s passing marks the end of an era for tennis. His impact on the sport \u2013 in Croatia, Europe and beyond \u2013 will endure for generations.<\/p>\n<p>        \tSign up to receive the Croatia Week Newsletter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by croatiaweek September 23, 2025 in Sport Croatia and the tennis world are mourning the loss of Nikola&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-164899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}