ATP Tour

Djokovic honours Nikola Pilic's memory: 'As long as I live, I will celebrate his name'

Novak Djokovic celebrated more than a victory Tuesday evening at the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Hellenic Championship. The 100-time tour-level titlist also honoured the life of influential coach Nikola Pilic, who passed away in September.

Djokovic welcomed friends and coaches from Pilic's academy — Petar Basic, Lado Chikhladze, Ana Jovanovic, Oliver Poturicek, Peter Shuster and Kostas Zaraklanis —  to the court in Athens to remember his life in front of a packed crowd. Djokovic and his brother, tournament director Djordje Djokovic, were moved as a video tribute played on the big screen.

“It was an emotional moment,” Djokovic told ATPTour.com. “Considering what he meant to me and my family — privately, also professionally — he was my tennis father as I like to call him, someone that has played a fundamental, integral role in my development as a tennis player and as a human being. It was really sad news when I heard that he passed away a few months ago.”

Pilic’s funeral was the first Djokovic had attended. The emotions of that moment remain with him and is a powerful reminder of the impact Pilic had on the Serbian and many others.

“It was a very, very difficult moment,” Djokovic said. “But on a brighter side, the legacy that he left behind on me, but also for this sport, is never going to fade away, never going to die.

“As long as I play tennis and as long as I live, I will celebrate his name. And tonight this was one of the moments of how to pay tribute and I’m sure in the near future — in the far future as well — people will learn about how Niki has impacted the world of tennis and the world of sport. He deserves it. He was a very special man.”