Nikola "Nikki" Špear ( sr-Cyrl, Никола Шпеар; 22 February 1944 – 2 December 2017), often spelled Nicola Spear in English-language media, was a

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player and coach who represented

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

in his playing career.

Professional career

Špear won the senior championship of Yugoslavia 1968, 1972, 1973 and 1975. Between 1969 and 1975, he represented

in the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

, compiling a 5–9 record in singles and 3–4 in doubles, for an overall 8–13 record across seven ties. Following his playing career, Špear worked as a tennis coach, leading the Denmark Davis Cup team, the German Fed Cup team, and the FR Yugoslavia Davis Cup team. In addition to his coaching career, he also organised tennis events in his hometown of

Subotica Subotica (, ; , , ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city in Central Europe and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, contemporary Sub ...

.Subotica.info
"Među prisutnim gostima bili su proslavljeni teniser Nikola Špear i Katarina Vojnić Hajduk koja je godinama u Republičkom zavodu za međunarodnu, naučnu, prosvetnu, kulturnu i tehničku saradnju bila zadužena za kontakte sa Amerikom."

Career finals

Singles: 3 (3 runner-ups)

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Singles performance timeline

Records

References

External links

* * *
Nikola Špear at eurosport.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spear, Nikola 1944 births 2017 deaths Yugoslav male tennis players Serbian male tennis players Serbian tennis coaches Sportspeople from Subotica