Nenad Zimonjić ( sr-Cyrl, Ненад Зимоњић, ; born 4 June 1976) is a Serbian former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles. He is an eight-time Grand Slam champion, having won the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

Wimbledon Championships as well as the 2010 French Open in men's doubles partnering

Daniel Nestor Daniel Mark Nestor ( ; sr, Данијел Нестор, Danijel Nestor; born September 4, 1972) is a Canadian former professional tennis player. Nestor won 91 men's doubles titles (with 11 different partners), including an Olympic gold medal a ...

. In mixed doubles, Zimonjić won the 2004 Australian Open partnering Elena Bovina, the

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

French Opens partnering

Katarina Srebotnik Katarina Srebotnik (born 12 March 1981) is a Slovenian retired professional tennis player. She reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 20 on 7 August 2006. On 4 July 2011, she reached No. 1 of the WTA doubles rankings, holding this ...

, the

2008 Australian Open The 2008 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 96th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 thr ...

partnering

Sun Tiantian Sun Tiantian (; ; born 12 October 1981) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. She won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in women's doubles along with her partner Li Ting. Sun reached a career-high singles ranking of worl ...

, and the

2014 Wimbledon Championships The 2014 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 128th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held ...

partnering

Samantha Stosur Samantha Jane Stosur ( ; born 30 March 1984) is an Australian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and held for 61 consecutive weeks. Also a former top ten s ...

. He has also reached nine further major finals across the two disciplines. Zimonjić won 54 doubles titles on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...

, including the

and

Tour Finals, and 15 Masters 1000-level titles. He became the world No. 1 for the first time in November 2008, going on to spend 50 weeks at the top of the rankings over the next two years. Zimonjić was the second Serbian to top the doubles rankings, after Slobodan Živojinović in 1986. In singles, he reached his career-high ranking of world No. 176 in March 1999, and achieved his best major result at the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is pla ...

that year, reaching the third round. Zimonjić represented Serbia in the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organi ...

from 1995 to 2017, competing in 55 ties and earning 43 victories, making him the most successful Davis Cup player in Serbian history. He was also part of the team that won the tournament in

, and served as captain from 2017 to 2020, overseeing Serbia's victory at the inaugural ATP Cup in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

. Zimonjić also competed at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

on four occasions.

Career

Doubles

Zimonjić turned pro in 1995 and remained relatively unknown outside his native country until a surprise victory in the mixed doubles at the 2004 Australian Open. Paired for the first time with Russian Elena Bovina, he beat defending champions

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...

and Leander Paes in straight sets in an hour and nine minutes. Alongside

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

, he won the 2006 French Open crown with a straight-sets victory over

and Elena Likhovtseva. At the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, Zimonjić reached the final of the men's doubles alongside France's Fabrice Santoro and the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles. In 2007, Zimonjić reached the

2007 French Open The 2007 French Open (Roland Garros) was held in Paris, France from 27 May through to 10 June 2007. Rafael Nadal became the first man to win the tournament 3 times consecutively since Björn Borg, 1978–81; and maintained his unbeaten run at Rol ...

mixed doubles final as the defending champions with

and lost to Nathalie Dechy and

Andy Ram Andreas "Andy" Ram ( he, אנדי רם; born April 10, 1980) is a retired Israeli professional tennis player. He was primarily a doubles player, and competed in three Olympics. He is the first Israeli tennis player to win a senior Grand Slam ...

. He left Santoro after Wimbledon and teamed with Mahesh Bhupathi until after the 2007 US Open. After the US Open, Nenad left Bhupathi and partnered with

, who won the French Open earlier in the year alongside Mark Knowles. The team won the

2007 St. Petersburg Open The 2007 St. Petersburg Open was a tennis tournament played on indoor carpet courts. It was the 13th edition of the St. Petersburg Open, and was part of the International Series of the 2007 ATP Tour. It took place at the Petersburg Sports and C ...

, without losing a set. Nestor and Zimonjić later won

2008 Wimbledon The 2008 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 122nd edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held fro ...

(Zimonjić's first Grand Slam),

2009 Wimbledon The 2009 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 123rd edition of the Wimbledon Championships and was held f ...

and 2010 French Open. In 2009, they defended their Wimbledon title & won 5 Masters 1000 titles. At the

World Team Cup The World Team Cup was the international men's team championship of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). The inaugural edition of the tournament was contested in 1975 in Kingston, Jamaica and was called the Nations Cup. No tournam ...

as a part of the Serbian team. With

Victor Troicki Viktor Troicki ( sr-Cyrl, Виктор Троицки, ; born 10 February 1986) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. He won his first ATP singles title at the 2010 Kremlin Cup, and his second and third ATP singles titles at the 2015 a ...

, he won two decisive games against Italian and Argentinian teams; as a result, Serbia finished first in its group, and then proceeded to beat Germany in the final encounter. In 2010, they finished runners-up at the Australian Open, later on in the year he won both the doubles with

and the mixed doubles with

at Roland Garros. Zimonjic ended his partnership with Nestor after winning the ATP World Tour Finals. In 2011, he partnered with

Michaël Llodra Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...

, with whom he won one Masters 1000 title & four ATP 500 titles. Their partnership ended mid-way through 2012, after Roland Garros. In 2014, Zimonjic & Nestor renewed their partnership, which saw them both return to the top 10 by May & ranked 3 by the end of the year. In 2015 he started the year partnering Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, then teamed up with Marcin Matkowski; despite not winning a title together, the Polish-Serbian duo qualified for the World Tour Finals. Zimonjic won titles each year for 16 straight seasons and finished 12 consecutive seasons, starting in 2004, ranked in the ATP doubles top 20. Since 2016, when he played doubles at the Rio Olympics with

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. ...

, Zimonjic hasn't had a steady partner for a full season. On 26 July 2017 the Serbian became the 10th player to record 700 doubles match wins (or more). In June 2018, Zimonjic underwent bilateral hip replacement surgery. He returned to the ATP tour in February 2019 at the Sofia Open, where he and compatriot

Viktor Troicki Viktor Troicki ( sr-Cyrl, Виктор Троицки, ; born 10 February 1986) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. He won his first ATP singles title at the 2010 Kremlin Cup, and his second and third ATP singles titles at the 2015 ...

had won the doubles title two years prior. He has a very powerful first serve that he can hit at up to 235 km/h (146 mph).

Retirement and inaugural Wimbledon mixed invitation doubles win

Although Zimonjic never officially announced his retirement, he played his last competitive match at Dubai Tennis Championships 2021. Partnering

Marion Bartoli Marion Bartoli (; born 2 October 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title after previously being runner-up in 2007, and was a semifinalist at the 2011 French Open. She also ...

, Zimonjic won the inaugural Wimbledon mixed invitation doubles 2022. They beat

Todd Woodbridge Todd Andrew Woodbridge, OAM (born 2 April 1971) is an Australian former professional tennis player and current sports broadcaster with the Nine Network. Woodbridge is best known for his successful Doubles partnerships with Mark Woodforde (n ...

and

Cara Black Cara Cavell Black (born 17 February 1979) is a Zimbabwean former professional tennis player. Black was primarily a doubles specialist, winning 60 WTA Tour and 11 ITF doubles titles. A former doubles world No. 1, she won ten major titles. ...

in straight sets in the final.

Singles

In August 1994, Zimonjić won his first professional singles title, beating

Miles MacLagan Miles Maclagan (born 23 September 1974) is a Zambia born British tennis coach and former professional tennis player. He formerly coached British No.1s Laura Robson and Andy Murray. Maclagan partnered Tim Henman successfully in the Davis Cup ...

on clay at a satellite tournament in Hungary. He went on to win four other ITF satellite events, as well as four Challenger tour titles in singles: Kiev (Ukraine) in 1998, Belo Horizonte (Brazil) in 2000, Andrezieux (France) in 2001, and Belgrade (Serbia) in 2004. In 2004, he defeated

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major champion and an Tennis at the 1996 Summer Olympic ...

St Pölten ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosoph ...

, and in 2005 on the grass of

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hal ...

, he defeated Nicolas Kiefer. Other recognised opponents include Ivo Karlovic in 2000,

Nicolas Mahut Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut (; born 21 January 1982) is a French professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having completed the career Grand Slam with victories at t ...

in 2001.

Davis Cup and ATP Cup

Zimonjić has been a member of Serbia Davis Cup team (previously

Yugoslavia Davis Cup team The Yugoslavia men's national tennis team competed from 1927 to 2003 and represented the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (up to 1929 known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) from 1927 to 1939, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (up to 1 ...

and Serbia and Montenegro Davis Cup team, respectively) since 1995, playing both singles and doubles, and in 2003–2004 he was the playing captain of the national team. In recent years, with the emergence of highly ranked Serbian singles players

Janko Tipsarević Janko Tipsarević ( sr-cyr, Јанко Типсаревић, ; born 22 June 1984) is a Serbian former tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 8, achieved on 2 April 2012. In his career, he won 4 ATP World Tour titles, one ...

, and

, Zimonjić became a doubles specialist on the team, partnering all of them, as well as

Dušan Vemić Dušan Vemić ( sr-cyr, Душан Вемић; born 17 June 1976) is a Serbian tennis Coach (sport), coach and former professional tennis player. Professional career His professional tennis career started in 1995, and his career high was No. 146 ...

and

Ilija Bozoljac Ilija Bozoljac ( sr-Cyrl, Илија Бозољац, ; born 2 August 1985) is a former Serbian professional tennis player and coach. On 29 January 2007, Bozoljac reached his best singles ranking of world No. 101. On 22 February 2016, he peaked at ...

. In 2010, Serbia won its first ever Davis Cup title, following the victories over

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

(3–2),

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

(4–1),

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

(3–2), and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the final match (3–2). Zimonjić played in all four doubles rubbers over the course of the competition, winning once (against Croatia, partnering Tipsarević) and losing the other three times (partnering Tipsarević, Djokovic, and Troicki, respectively). To celebrate the win, all the players shaved their heads. The central celebration was held in Belgrade in front of several thousand fans, and the Serbian national postal service issued a stamp picturing the players. Flickr - Carine06 - Future star

In the 2013 quarterfinals against the United States, he and

had an impressive five set victory against the no. 1 ranked Bryan brothers. Zimonjić was named Serbia Davis Cup team captain in 2003-2004 and from January 2017 till December 2020 when he was unexpectedly replaced by

. He was also the 2020 ATP Cup captain when Serbia won the inaugural 2020 cup.

Personal life

Zimonjić was born in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

, and was brought up in the

Borča Borča ( sr-cyr, Борча, ) is an urban settlement of the municipality of Palilula, Belgrade, Serbia. , it has a population of 46,086 inhabitants. Location Borča is located just north of the downtown Belgrade, in the Banat section of the mu ...

suburb, while he is currently living in New Belgrade. Zimonjić's paternal family hails from the

Gacko Gacko ( sr-cyrl, Гацко) is a town and municipality located in Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the region of East Herzegovina. As of 2013, the town has a population of 5,784 inhabitants, while the m ...

region in

Herzegovina Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia. It has never had strictly defined geogra ...

, from where it settled in Vučkovica near

Kragujevac Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Serbia, and is situated on ...

, while his mother was born in Gospić, in

Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east b ...

. The family's slava (feast day) is Aranđelovdan. He is related to Bogdan Zimonjić (1813–1909), a Serbian Orthodox priest and guerilla leader. In 2008, he married former model Mina Knežević. On 4 December 2008 his wife gave birth to twins, Leon and Luna.

Significant finals

Grand Slam

Men's doubles: 7 (3–4)

Mixed doubles: 10 (5–5)

Year-end championships

Doubles: 3 (2–1)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 91 (54 titles, 37 runner-ups)

Team competition finals: 4 (3–1)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

¹ '

Mixed doubles

Awards

;1994 * Best Male Tennis Player in

FR Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

;1996 * Best Male Tennis Player in FR Yugoslavia ;1998 * Best Male Tennis Player in FR Yugoslavia ;2001 * Best Male Tennis Player in FR Yugoslavia ;2007 * Serbian Sport Association "May Award" ;2008 * Year-end No. 1 (with

) * ATP Doubles Team of the Year (with Daniel Nestor) * ITF Men's doubles World Champion (with Daniel Nestor) ;2010 * Recognition for 50 matches played for Serbia Davis Cup team ;2012 * Award ''Pride of the Nation'' by Serbia Tennis Federation *

Commitment Award ;2013 * Davis Cup Award of Excellence

Records

Top 10 wins

*He has a 1–4 (20%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zimonjic, Nenad 1976 births Living people Australian Open (tennis) champions French Open champions Olympic tennis players of Serbia Olympic tennis players of Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro male tennis players Serbian male tennis players Tennis players from Belgrade Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Wimbledon champions Yugoslav male tennis players Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players ITF World Champions

Career

Doubles

Retirement and inaugural Wimbledon mixed invitation doubles win

Singles

Davis Cup and ATP Cup

Personal life

Significant finals

Grand Slam

Men's doubles: 7 (3–4)

Mixed doubles: 10 (5–5)

Year-end championships

Doubles: 3 (2–1)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 91 (54 titles, 37 runner-ups)

Team competition finals: 4 (3–1)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Mixed doubles

Awards

Records

Top 10 wins

See also

References

External links