He was a German Davis Cup captain
Grief for Niki Pilić: Former tennis star is dead
Updated on September 23, 2025 – 11:30 a.m.Reading time: 1 min.
As a Davis Cup captain, Niki Pilić shaped German tennis for many years. Now the athlete, born in the former Yugoslavia, has died.
Grief for Niki Pilić: The former tennis player died at the age of 86. The Croatian tennis association announced this on Tuesday on its website. Pilić died in Opatija in his Croatian homeland on Monday. In his career he won a Grand Slam title and triumphed in doubles at the US Open in 1970. He also stood with the three years later French Open in the final.
From 1987 to 1996, Pilić was also captain of the German Davis Cup team, trained players such as Boris Becker, Michael Stich or Patrik Kühnen, won the title three times with the German selection.
At the “Miracle of Gothenburg” in 1988 and 1989 in Stuttgart – each against Sweden – Boris Becker was the head of the German team, in 1993 in Düsseldorf against Australia, Michael Stich led the team. In addition, Pilić triumphed with Croatia in 2005 as a team leader and sat in 2010 at the Serbs’ Davis Cup victory as a consultant in the box. In his homeland Croatia he ran a tennis school, and by 2017 Pilić was also a consultant at the German Tennis Association (DTB).
Since the beginning of 1987 he has also been owned by German citizenship.