Background
Pilić was born in Split, Croatian Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia to Krsto Pilić and Danica Tomić-Ferić year and a half before the outbreak of World World War World War II
Pilić was born in Split, Croatian Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia to Krsto Pilić and Danica Tomić-Ferić year and a half before the outbreak of World World War World War II
Upon graduating he attempted to enroll at a community college (viša škola) in Zagreb, but due to not meeting the entrance criteria ended up in Novi Sad where he studied administration (viša upravna škola).
He was one of the Handsome Eight. Pilić was ranked World Number. 6 in January 1968 and World Number.
7 for 1967 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph.
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.
He 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. His best singles performance at a Grand Slam tournament came in 1973 when he reached the final of the French Open but lost to Ilie Năstase in three straight sets.
Pilić was the catalyst to the 1973 Wimbledon Boycott.
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 in the Association of Tennis Professionals (Association of Tennis Professionals), and including 13 of the 16 seeds, withdrew from the 1973 Wimbledon championship. Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
He runs a tennis academy in Oberschleißheim near Munich where he resides, working with young professional players like Ernests Gulbis.
In the past players such as Michael Stich and Novak Djokovic came through the Pilic academy.
In 1970, Pilić married Serbian actress Mija Adamović. The couple has children together.
In 1970 Pilić won the men"s doubles title at the United States Open together with his French partner Pierre Barthès by defeating the Australians John Newcombe and Rod Laver in four sets. In May of that year the Yugoslav tennis federation alleged that Pilić had refused to represent them in a Davis Cup tie against New Zealand earlier that month. After retiring, Pilić began coaching and became the first captain to win the Davis Cup trophy for three different nations: Germany in 1988, 1989 and 1993, Croatia in 2005 and Serbia in 2010. He"s been working with Serbia Davis Cup team in the adviser role since 2007, and have one Davis Cup title 2010.
