Ilija Bozoljac ( sr-Cyrl, Илија Бозољац, ; born 2 August 1985) is a former Serbian professional tennis player and coach. On 29 January 2007, Bozoljac reached his best singles ranking of world No. 101. On 22 February 2016, he peaked at world No. 99 in the doubles rankings. Bozoljac's strongest weapon is a very powerful serve that he can hit at up to , along with powerful groundstrokes. His nickname is Bozo.

Professional career

2006

2006 was arguably Bozoljac's best year. In January, he had his best result at the ATP level in Zagreb, beating no. 170 Dudi Sela to qualify, and then beating no. 77 Daniele Bracciali and no. 34 Feliciano López, before losing to no. 81 Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.

2008

In May, Bozoljac narrowly missed qualifying into the

2008 French Open The 2008 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 112th edition of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 25 May until 8 J ...

, losing to no. 75 Eduardo Schwank in the qualifying round. In June, Bozoljac entered the main draw of

2008 Wimbledon The 2008 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 122nd edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held fro ...

as a lucky loser, after beating

Nick Monroe Benjamin Nicholas Monroe (born April 12, 1982) is an American professional tennis player. He has won 4 ATP World Tour doubles titles and 13 ATP Challenger Tour titles in his career. College career Monroe had a highly successful college caree ...

and Robert Smeets, but losing to

Stefano Galvani Stefano Galvani (; born 3 June 1977) is a professional male tennis player from San Marino. He is a professional from 1999 and was coached by Patricio Remondegui. Professional career He reached a career high of No. 99 ATP Ranking on April 2, ...

in the qualifying round in five sets.

2010

Bozoljac qualified for Wimbledon and progressed to the second round, where he was defeated in four tight sets by defending champion Roger Federer. He was a reserve player on the Serbia Davis Cup team when they won the

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 ...

title.

2013

Bozoljac began 2013 by returning to the ITF Men's circuit, taking three singles titles in the opening three months. In April, Ilija and his doubles partner Nenad Zimonjić beat

Bob and Mike Bryan The Bryan brothers, identical twin brothers Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, are retired American professional doubles tennis players and the most successful duo of all time. They were born on April 29, 1978, with Mike being the elder by two minutes. ...

in the Davis Cup World Group quarterfinals against the United States, winning 7–6⁽⁵⁾, 7–6⁽¹⁾, 5–7, 4–6, 15–13 in a performance described by Sports Illustrated as "Bozo goes Beast Mode...there was Bozoljac playing out of his mind in a five-set win that left everyone shaking their heads". Bozoljac was praised by the Bryan brothers and by U.S. team captain Jim Courier, who said "Let's all tip our hats to his performance. We had him 15-30 a couple times, and the guy came up with some incredible shots."

Style of play

Bozoljac is known for his unique style of play. He often changes the way he performs forehands and backhands, hitting double-handed forehands and single-handed backhands. He also has a strong serve, but he has to limit the strength of his serve due to a back injury. Nevertheless, he still serves well over 200 km/h.

Personal life

Bozoljac was born on August, 2, 1985 in Aleksandrovac, Serbia, to Jelena and Miroljub Bozoljac. He started playing tennis in TK Partizan in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

and turned pro in 2002. He's married to Andrijana Basarić since 2011 and they have two daughters named Lola (b. 2012) and Nika (b. 2015). They live in

, Serbia.

Team competition finals

ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 25 (13–12)

Doubles: 27 (17–10)

Performance timelines

Singles

''Current through the

2015 Banja Luka Challenger The 2015 Banja Luka Challenger was a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts. It was the fourteenth edition of the tournament which was part of the 2015 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 14 ...

.'' ¹ Held as Hamburg Masters (outdoor clay) until 2008,

Madrid Masters There are two sporting events named the Madrid Masters: *Madrid Open (tennis) The Madrid Open ( es, Masters de Madrid, link=no), currently sponsored by Mutua Madrileña and known as the Mutua Madrid Open, is a joint men's and women's professional ...

(outdoor clay) 2009 – present.

Doubles

''Current through

2018 Wimbledon Championships The 2018 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament which took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main tournament began on Monday, 2 July 2018 and ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bozoljac, Ilija 1985 births Living people Serbian male tennis players Serbian tennis coaches Serbia and Montenegro male tennis players Yugoslav male tennis players People from Aleksandrovac