The former German Davis Cup captain Nikola “Niki” Pilic is dead.
This was announced by the Croatian tennis association on Tuesday (September 23, 2025) on its website. The former tennis professional and coach died on Monday in Opatija in his Croatian homeland at the age of 86.
Boris Becker as the head of the team
Pilic had celebrated the Davis Cup victory three times in his 16 years. At the “Wunder von 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, Pilic triumphed with Croatia in 2005 as a team leader and sat in 2010 at the Davis Cup victory of the Serbs as a consultant in the box. In his homeland Croatia he ran a tennis school, and by 2017 Pilic was also a consultant at the German Tennis Bund (DTB).
Supporter of Novak Djokovic
Pilic, who had advanced to sixth place in the world rankings in his player career and had reached the final at the French Open in 1973, was later considered the great sponsor of the Grand Slam-Words winner Novak Djokovic from Serbia. As a teenager, Djokovic trained four and a half years in his academy in Munich. He later described Pilic as his “tennis father and mentor”.