Matija Pecotic had a breakthrough week at the 2023 Delray Beach Open, scoring his first ATP Tour main draw win at the Florida event and winning the hearts of the tennis community.
The 33-year-old Croatian, who works full time as a director of capital markets for the West Palm Beach, Florida-based firm, made a fairytale debut at the Delray Beach Open before losing in straight sets on Wednesday night to world No. 55 Marcos Giron. Spectators in the crowd included Venus Williams and Mike Tyson.
Over the weekend, Pecotic won qualifying matches against Americans Stefan Kozlov and Tennys Sandgren, before posting the upset of his life on Tuesday over former world No. 8 and 2017 Delray Beach Open champion Jack Sock.
Following his second round loss to Giron, Pecotic was applauded by several members of the tennis community for his passion and commitment to the game. Among them were words of encouragement from World No.1 Novak Djokovic, as the Croatian has been a hitting partner with the Serb in the past.
"Matija, my brother! You don’t belong in the office just yet. See you on the court soon,” wrote Djokovic on Instagram on Thursday.
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