Slobodan Živojinović
Živojinović at Wimbledon in the 1980s
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Country (sports) | ![]() |
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Residence | Belgrade, Serbia |
Born | Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia |
July 23, 1963
Height | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). |
Turned pro | 1981 |
Retired | 1992 |
Plays | Right-handed |
Prize money | $1,450,654 |
Singles | |
Career record | 150–138 |
Career titles | 2 |
Highest ranking | No. 19 (October 26, 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 (September 8, 1986) |
Slobodan "Boba" Živojinović (Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Живојиновић, Serbian pronunciation: [slɔbɔ̌dan ʒiʋɔjǐːnɔʋit͡ɕ]; born on July 23, 1963) is a retired Serbian 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 semi-finals of the 1985 Australian Open and the 1986 Wimbledon Championships, achieving a career-high ranking of World No. 19.
Contents
Tennis career
Živojinović represented SFR Yugoslavia as the number fifteen seed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, 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'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 gruelling 5-set quarterfinal to reach the semi-finals (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 hard fought 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 U.S. Open in 1986 with Andrés Gómez. That same year, he won three more tournaments. He was ranked as the No. 1 doubles player in the world on September 8, 1986.
Career titles (10)
Singles (2)
Legend |
Grand Slam (0) |
Tennis Masters Cup (0) |
ATP Tour (2) |
No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Opponent in the final | Score in the final |
1. | November 17, 1986 | Houston, United States | Carpet | ![]() |
6–1, 4–6, 6–3 |
2. | October 10, 1988 | Sydney, Australia | Hard (i) | ![]() |
7–6(8), 6–3, 6–4 |
Doubles (8)
Legend |
Grand Slam (1) |
Tennis Masters Cup (0) |
ATP Tour (7) |
No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Partner | Opponents in the final | Score |
1. | July 8, 1985 | Boston, United States | Hard | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
2–6, 6–4, 7–6 |
2. | March 17, 1986 | Brussels, Belgium | Carpet | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
7–6, 7–5 |
3. | March 24, 1986 | Rotterdam, Netherlands | Carpet | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
2–6, 6–3, 6–2 |
4. | August 26, 1986 | US Open, New York City | Hard | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
4–6, 6–3, 6–3, 4–6, 6–3 |
5. | March 23, 1987 | Brussels, Belgium | Carpet | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
7–6, 7–6 |
6. | March 30, 1987 | Milan, Italy | Carpet | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
3–6, 6–3, 6–4 |
7. | October 8, 1988 | Tokyo, Japan | Carpet | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
7–5, 5–7, 6–3 |
8. | February 12, 1990 | Brussels, Belgium | Carpet | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
7–5, 6–3 |
Team competition titles (1)
No. | Date | Team competition | Surface | Partner/Team | Opponents in the final | Score in final |
1. | May 27, 1990 | World Team Cup, Düsseldorf, Germany | Clay | ![]() ![]() |
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2–1 |
Grand Slam Singles performance timeline
Tournament | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | Career SR |
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Australian Open | A | A | A | SF | NH | 3R | 3R | 2R | A | A | 0 / 4 |
French Open | 1R | A | 2R | 2R | 1R | 1R | 3R | 1R | 1R | A | 0 / 8 |
Wimbledon | A | A | A | 2R | SF | QF | 4R | 4R | 1R | 1R | 0 / 7 |
US Open | A | A | A | 1R | 1R | 3R | A | 1R | A | A | 0 / 4 |
Grand Slam SR | 0 / 1 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 23 |
- A = did not participate in the tournament
- NH = tournament not held
- SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played
Personal
Živojinović was married to Zorica Desnica with whom he has a son Filip. In 1991, Živojinović divorced her and married popular Bosnian folk singer Lepa Brena.
Though undeniably well known for his tennis, Živojinović's media prominence, especially in the years since his retirement, also owes a lot to his marriage to Lepa Brena, Yugoslavia's biggest commercial folk singing star ever. Their wedding on December 7, 1991 was a supreme media event throughout the then still existing Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The lavish ceremony took place at Belgrade's InterContinental Hotel with Ion Ţiriac as the groom's best man. The level of interest in the event was such that Brena's manager Raka Đokić even released a VHS tape of the wedding for commercial exploitation.[1] 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.[2]
Throughout 2005 and 2006 there were numerous tabloid reports about Živojinović's supposed infidelity and bad state of his marriage. Finally, in April 2006 he reportedly even moved out of the family home following yet another argument with Brena.[3] Though the reports of a separation were frequent and detailed,[4] the couple are still together.
References
External links
Sporting positions | ||
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Preceded by | World No. 1 (doubles) August 25, 1986 - September 7, 1986 September 22, 1986 - October 19, 1986 November 10, 1986 - November 23, 1986 |
Succeeded by![]() ![]() ![]() |
- Articles containing Serbian-language text
- Articles containing potentially dated statements from May 2022
- Articles with invalid date parameter in template
- 1963 births
- Hopman Cup competitors
- Living people
- Olympic tennis players of Yugoslavia
- Serbian male tennis players
- Sportspeople from Belgrade
- Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- US Open (tennis) champions
- Yugoslav male tennis players
- Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles