Dejan Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Дејан Петровић; born 3 April 1978) is an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n-born

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

coach and former professional

player. He played

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

for

Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

Career

Petrović made his

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

debut in the

1998 Australian Open The 1998 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Albert Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 86th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 19 January through 1 February 1998. Seniors M ...

, partnering

Grant Silcock Grant Silcock (born 21 May 1975) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. Silcock is currently Anglican Church Grammar School head tennis coach. Career Silcock was a doubles specialist and won the Hong Kong Open in 1999, partneri ...

in the doubles. They were eliminated in the opening round but made it into the second round a year later, at the

1999 Australian Open The 1999 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. It was the 87th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 18 through 31 January 1999. This was the first Grand Slam o ...

. In 2002 he reached the second round at the Australian Open and

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, partnering Todd Perry and then

David Škoch David Škoch (born 6 November 1976) is a professional doubles tennis player from the Czech Republic. He was the Wimbledon boys' singles champion in 1992. In 2012–2019 he played in ITF tournaments with Petr Nouza, recently in May 2019 in Jabl ...

. As a singles player, Petrović made two Australian Open appearances and played once at Wimbledon, but didn't win a match in either event. He lost four set matches to

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men' ...

and

Sargis Sargsian Sargis Sargsian ( hy, Սարգիս Սարգսյան, born 3 June 1973) is a former professional tennis player from Armenia. Sargsian turned pro in 1995, and has won one singles and two doubles titles during his career on the ATP Tour. He played ...

in the Australian Opens and lost in straight sets to

Martin Damm Martin Damm Sr. (born 1 August 1972) is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. He is best known as a doubles player (his highest ranking being No. 5 in the world in April 2007). His highest singles ranking was No. 42 in A ...

at Wimbledon. He was a wildcard entrant in the

2000 AAPT Championships The 2000 Next Generation Adelaide International was a men's ATP tennis tournament held in Adelaide, Australia and played on outdoor hardcourts. It was the 23rd edition of the tournament and was held from 3 January until 9 January 2000. Lleyton ...

, held in his hometown, Adelaide. After defeating Frenchman

Stéphane Huet Stéphane Huet (born 25 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from France. Huet appeared in a total of 16 Grand Slam tournaments during his career. When he made his Grand Slam tournament debut in the 1993 French Open, as a qualifie ...

, Petrović was beaten comfortably by another local,

Lleyton Hewitt Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He is the most recent Australian man to win a major singles title, with two at the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon Championships. In November 200 ...

, who courted controversy when he called the crowd "stupid" for not cheering for him. Petrović relocated in 2003 to

, where his sister and parents lived. He immediately represented his new country in the

, playing doubles with

Nenad Zimonjić Nenad Zimonjić ( sr-Cyrl, Ненад Зимоњић, ; born 4 June 1976) is a Serbian former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles. He is an eight-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2008 and 2009 Wimbledon Cham ...

. The pair would play three matches together in total, winning two of them. He is now running a tennis academy in the

n city of

Kragujevac Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Serbia, and is situated on ...

. The most successful player that he has coached is

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

, who first starting working with Petrović at the age of 16. Under the mentoring of Petrović, Djokovic went from being ranked outside the top 300 to breaking into the top 100 in less than a year. Petrović coached

Ana Ivanovic Ana Schweinsteiger ( sr, Ана Швајнштајгер / ''Ana Švajnštajger''; born 6 November 1987), professionally known by her birth name Ana Ivanovic (Ана Ивановић / ''Ana Ivanović'', ), is a Serbian former world No. 1 tenn ...

until 2015.

Challenger titles

Doubles: (8)

References

External links

*
Dejan Petrović
at the

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, an ...

Coach Profile * {{DEFAULTSORT:Petrovic, Dejan 1978 births Living people Australian male tennis players Tennis players from Adelaide Australian people of Serbian descent Australian expatriate sportspeople in Serbia Serbian male tennis players Serbian tennis coaches Serbia and Montenegro male tennis players Novak Djokovic coaches