Slobodan Živojinović

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Slobodan Živojinović

Živojinović at Wimbledon in the mid 1980s.
Country (sports)	Yugoslavia
Residence	Belgrade, Serbia
Born	(1963-07-23) 23 July 1963 (age 58) Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)
Turned pro	1981
Retired	1992
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money	$1,450,654
Singles
Career record	150–138
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	No. 19 (26 October 1987)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	SF (1985)
French Open	3R (1988)
Wimbledon	SF (1986)
US Open	3R (1987)
Doubles
Career record	151–102
Career titles	8
Highest ranking	No. 1 (8 September 1986)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (1985)
French Open	1R (1985, 1989, 1991)
Wimbledon	SF (1987)
US Open	W (1986)

Slobodan "Bobo"^[1][2][3][4] Živojinović (Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Живојиновић, pronounced [slɔbɔ̌dan ʒiʋɔjǐːnɔʋit͡ɕ]; born 23 July 1963) is a Serbian former professional tennis player who competed for SFR Yugoslavia.

Together with Nenad Zimonjić, he is the only tennis player from Serbia to be the world No. 1 in doubles. As a singles player, he reached the semifinals of the 1985 Australian Open and the 1986 Wimbledon Championships, achieving a career-high ranking of world No. 19 in October 1987.

Tennis career[]

Živojinović represented SFR Yugoslavia as the number 15 seed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, where he was defeated in the second round by France's Guy Forget.

The right-hander won two career singles titles (Houston, 1986 and Sydney, 1988), as well as eight doubles titles. He reached his highest singles ATP ranking on October 26, 1987, when he became world No. 19. Živojinović was known for his tall, wiry frame that made him the original big-boom server before Goran Ivanisevic.^[5] He built his game on his big serve, enhanced greatly by his height and his muscular thighs. He was an exciting player to watch and a very troubling one to play against. His ace total in a match often became difficult to overcome, with the result that no one looked forward to playing the big Serb.^[6]

Živojinović's most notable Grand Slam results were two semifinals. As an unseeded player at the 1985 Australian Open, he memorably beat John McEnroe in a five-set quarterfinal to reach the semifinals (where he lost in straight sets to Mats Wilander). The next year, at the 1986 Wimbledon semifinal, again as an unseeded player, he lost to Ivan Lendl in a five-set match.

Over the course of his career, Živojinović amassed an overall singles record of 150 wins and 138 defeats. He was much more successful in doubles competition, winning the US Open in 1986 with Andrés Gómez. The same year, he won three more tournaments. He was ranked as the world No. 1 doubles player on September 8, 1986.

Career finals[]

Singles (2–2)[]

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Mar 1985	Nancy, France	Carpet (i)	Tim Wilkison	6–4, 6–7, 7–9
Win	1–1	Nov 1986	Houston, United States	Carpet (i)	Scott Davis	6–1, 4–6, 6–3
Loss	1–2	May 1988	Forest Hills, United States	Clay	Andre Agassi	5–7, 6–7(2–7), 5–7
Win	2–2	Oct 1988	Sydney, Australia	Hard (i)	Richard Matuszewski	7–6(10–8), 6–3, 6–4

Doubles (8)[]

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1.	Jul 1985	Boston, United States	Hard	Libor Pimek	Peter McNamara Paul McNamee	2–6, 6–4, 7–6
Win	2.	Mar 1986	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet (i)	Boris Becker	John Fitzgerald Tomáš Šmíd	7–6, 7–5
Win	3.	Mar 1986	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Carpet (i)	Stefan Edberg	Wojtek Fibak Matt Mitchell	2–6, 6–3, 6–2
Win	4.	Aug 1986	US Open, New York	Hard	Andrés Gómez	Joakim Nyström Mats Wilander	4–6, 6–3, 6–3, 4–6, 6–3
Win	5.	Mar 1987	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet (i)	Boris Becker	Chip Hooper Michael Leach	7–6, 7–6
Win	6.	Mar 1987	Milan, Italy	Carpet (i)	Boris Becker	Sergio Casal Emilio Sánchez	3–6, 6–3, 6–4
Win	7.	Oct 1988	Tokyo, Japan	Carpet (i)	Andrés Gómez	Boris Becker Eric Jelen	7–5, 5–7, 6–3
Win	8.	Feb 1990	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet (i)	Emilio Sánchez	Goran Ivanišević Balázs Taróczy	7–5, 6–3

Team competitions (1)[]

No.	Date	Team competition	Surface	Partner/Team	Opponents	Score
1.	May 1990	World Team Cup, Düsseldorf, Germany	Clay	Goran Ivanišević Goran Prpić	Jim Courier Brad Gilbert Ken Flach Robert Seguso	2–1

Grand Slam singles performance timeline[]

Personal life[]

Živojinović at Wimbledon in the mid-1980s

Živojinović was engaged to Zorica Desnica with whom he has a son Filip. The couple broke up before getting to the altar. Desnica later married basketball player Ivo Nakić whom she has a son Mario and daughter Iva with—their son Mario also went on to become a professional basketball player.

In 1991, Živojinović married Yugoslav folk singer Fahreta Jahić known as Lepa Brena.

Živojinović's media prominence, especially in the years since his retirement, owes much to his marriage to Lepa Brena, Yugoslavia's biggest commercial folk singing star. Their wedding on December 7, 1991 was a media event throughout the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The lavish ceremony took place at Belgrade's InterContinental Hotel with Ion Țiriac as the groom's best man. The level of interest in the event was such that Brena's manager Raka Đokić released a VHS tape of the wedding for commercial exploitation.^[7] Their very public relationship has been providing steady fodder for various yellow media publications ever since.

The couple have two sons — Stefan (born in New York City in May 1992) and Viktor. In the afternoon hours of Thursday, November 23, 2000, 8-year-old Stefan was kidnapped by members of Zemun mafia clan and returned on Tuesday five days later on the side of Belgrade–Niš highway for the ransom sum reported to be more than DM 2 million.^[8]

Throughout 2005 and 2006, there were numerous tabloid reports about Živojinović's supposed infidelity and bad state of his marriage. In April 2006, he reportedly moved out of the family home following an argument with Brena.^[9] Although the reports of a separation were frequent and detailed,^[10] the couple are still together.

References[]

External links[]

• Slobodan Živojinović at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Slobodan Živojinović at the International Tennis Federation

Sporting positions
Preceded by Yannick Noah Andrés Gómez Andrés Gómez	World No. 1 (doubles) August 25, 1986 - September 7, 1986 September 22, 1986 - October 19, 1986 November 10, 1986 - November 23, 1986	Succeeded by Andrés Gómez Andrés Gómez Andrés Gómez
Preceded by	President of the Tennis Federation of Serbia 2006–2011	Succeeded by Vuk Jeremić