Matija Pecotić (born 3 July 1989) is a Croatian-Maltese tennis player. Pecotić has a career high ATP singles ranking of 206 achieved on 23 November 2015. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of 485 achieved on 16 November 2015. Pecotić has won 12 ITF titles, 10 singles and 2 doubles. Pecotic played No. 1 for Princeton University, and became the first player from Princeton since 1984 to reach the semi-finals of the All-American tournament. As a result of his historic run, Pecotic reached a ranking of No.2 in the nation.

Tennis career

Pecotic began playing on the pro tour in January 2014. Pecotić represented Team Croatia and the

2023 United Cup The 2023 United Cup tennis event was won by the United States, defeating Italy in the finals, 4–0. The United States swept Poland in the semifinals while Italy lost one match in their defeat of Greece. This was the first edition of the United Cu ...

where they beat Argentina (5–0) and France (3–2)

Personal life

Pecotić was born 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 ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

and moved to Malta at the age of 3, where he picked up tennis. During his time off due to an injury suffered in 2016, Pecotić applied and was accepted to

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

, which he attended from 2017 to 2019, earning an MBA at the completion of his studies. In 2021, Pecotić began working for a private equity/real estate development firm in West Palm Beach, Florida, but continued to play tournaments that were close by.

College career

He played college tennis at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, where he became the most winning player in program history. He was also the captain of the tennis team, Princeton's first All-American since 1984, and the first-ever and only three-time Ivy League Player of the Year.

Professional career

2014–16

In January 2014, Pecotic joined the professional tour. In less than 24 months, he climbed to world No. 206 but was sidelined by an injury that kept him out for most of 2016.

2019

Pecotić returned to the ATP Tour in August 2019, and put up a 46–8 W/L Record to return to the top 300, but did not play for most of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2022

In 2022, he only played three events, beating

Stefano Travaglia Stefano Travaglia (born 18 December 1991 in Ascoli Piceno) is an Italian tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 60, which he reached on 8 February 2021. He also has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 231 achieved on ...

6–0 6–1 in the qualifications of the ATP event in

Umag Umag (; it, Umago) is a coastal town in Istria, Croatia. Geography It is the westernmost town of Croatia, and it includes Bašanija, the westernmost point of Croatia. Population Umag has a population of 7,281, with a total municipal populatio ...

, Croatia as a wildcard.

2023: ATP debut and first ATP win

In 2023, he debuted for the Croatia national team at the

in Perth, Australia but did not play any singles matches. He played one match in doubles with

Petra Marčinko Petra Marčinko (born 4 December 2005) is a Croatian tennis player. Marčinko has career-high WTA rankings of 194 in singles, achieved on 7 November 2022, and 819 in doubles, set on 7 November 2022. She has won three singles and two doubles titl ...

. Team Croatia beat Argentina (5–0) and France (3–2) but lost to Greece. At 33, ranked No. 784 he qualified for his first main draw at the 2023 Delray Beach Open as an alternate defeating two Americans

Stefan Kozlov Stefan Kozlov (, ; born February 1, 1998) is an American professional tennis player of Russian descent. He has a career-high ATP ranking of world No. 103 achieved on 18 July 2022 and doubles ranking of world No. 180 on 19 June 2017. Kozlov m ...

and

Tennys Sandgren Tennys Sandgren II ( ; born July 22, 1991) is an American professional tennis player. He has achieved a career-high ATP singles ATP rankings, ranking of No. 41 on January 14, 2019. He broke into the top 100 of the ATP rankings toward the end of 2 ...

. As a result he moved more than a 100 positions in the rankings. He defeated a third American, former top-10 player

Jack Sock Jack Sock (born September 24, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. He has won four career ATP singles titles and 17 doubles titles, and has career-high rankings of world No. 8 in singles (on 20 November 2017) and world No. 2 in dou ...

in the first round, his first ATP win ever. In the round of 16 he lost to American

Marcos Giron Marcos Andres Giron (born July 24, 1993; ) is an American professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 49 on 16 May 2022 and a doubles ranking of No. 194 on August 1, 2022. He won the boys' singles in the Ojai Ten ...

. He moved another 100 positions into the top 600. He accepted a wildcard for the qualifications at the 2023 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston.

Singles performance timeline

''Current through the 2023 Delray Beach Open.''

Challenger and Futures/World Tennis Finals

Singles: 16 (10–6)

References

External links

* * 1989 births Living people Croatian male tennis players Sportspeople from Belgrade Princeton Tigers men's tennis players Harvard Business School alumni {{Croatia-tennis-bio-stub