Slobodan Živojinović

Slobodan Živojinović

Živojinović at Wimbledon in the mid 1980s.
Country (sports)	Yugoslavia
Residence	Belgrade, Serbia
Born	(1963-07-23) 23 July 1963 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	151–139
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" 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 26 October 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. 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 against him.

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 8 September 1986.

Career finals

Singles (2–2)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Tour (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(5–7), 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 (8–6)

Legend
Grand Slam (1)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Tour (7)

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 1985	Boston, United States	Hard	Libor Pimek	Peter McNamara Paul McNamee	2–6, 6–4, 7–6
Loss	1–1	Nov 1985	Wembley, UK	Carpet (i)	Boris Becker	Guy Forget Anders Järryd	5–7, 6–4, 5–7
Win	2–1	Mar 1986	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet (i)	Boris Becker	John Fitzgerald Tomáš Šmíd	7–6, 7–5
Win	3–1	Mar 1986	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Carpet (i)	Stefan Edberg	Wojciech Fibak Matt Mitchell	2–6, 6–3, 6–2
Loss	2–3	May 1986	Forest Hills, US	Clay	Boris Becker	Hans Gildemeister Andrés Gómez	6–7, 6–7
Loss	3–3	Aug 1986	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Boris Becker	Chip Hooper Mike Leach	7–6, 3–6, 3–6
Win	4–3	Aug 1986	US Open, New York	Hard	Andrés Gómez	Joakim Nyström Mats Wilander	4–6, 6–3, 6–3, 4–6, 6–3
Loss	4–4	Oct 1986	Vienna, Austria	Carpet (i)	Brad Gilbert	Ricardo Acioly Wojciech Fibak	walkover
Loss	4–5	Nov 1986	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Pat Cash	Sherwood Stewart Kim Warwick	4–6, 4–6
Win	5–5	Mar 1987	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet (i)	Boris Becker	Chip Hooper Michael Leach	7–6, 7–6
Win	6–5	Mar 1987	Milan, Italy	Carpet (i)	Boris Becker	Sergio Casal Emilio Sánchez	3–6, 6–3, 6–4
Win	7–5	Oct 1988	Tokyo, Japan	Carpet (i)	Andrés Gómez	Boris Becker Eric Jelen	7–5, 5–7, 6–3
Loss	7–6	Oct 1989	Tokyo, Japan	Carpet (i)	Andrés Gómez	Kevin Curren David Pate	6–4, 3–6, 6–7
Win	8–6	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

Key

W

F

SF

QF

#R

RR

Q#

DNQ

A

NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Tournament	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	Career SR
Australian Open	A	A	A	SF	NH	3R	3R	2R	1R	Q2	0 / 6
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	1R	1R	A	A	0 / 5
Grand Slam SR	0 / 1	0 / 0	0 / 1	0 / 4	0 / 3	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 3	0 / 2	0 / 26

Personal life

Živojinović at Wimbledon in the mid-1980s

In the early-to-mid 1980s, active professional tennis player Živojinović became engaged to Zorica Desnica. The couple had a son, Filip, in 1985. They split up during the late 1980s.

In October 1989, twenty-six-year-old Živojinović began dating the Yugoslav folk superstar Lepa Brena, nearly three years his senior, having reportedly met her at the premiere of her star vehicle movie Hajde da se volimo 2. Their 7 December 1991 wedding—a lavish ceremony at Belgrade's InterContinental Hotel with tennis player Ion Țiriac as the groom's best man—was a media event throughout Yugoslavia. The level of attention it generated in the country was such that Brena's manager Raka Đokić released a VHS tape of the wedding for commercial exploitation.

The couple's child, son Stefan Emerald Živojinović, was born in May 1992 in New York City. Their second son, Viktor Ernest Živojinović, was born in March 1998 in Miami. On 23 November 2000, eight-year-old Stefan was kidnapped by the Zemun Clan in front of the family's home in Belgrade. He was released five days later and left on the side of a highway after his family paid a ransom reported to be more than DM2 million.

External links

• Slobodan Živojinović at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Slobodan Živojinović at the International Tennis Federation
• Slobodan Živojinović at the Davis Cup
• Slobodan Živojinović at Olympedia (archive)
• Slobodan Živojinović at Olympics.com