| R32 | L | Buster C. Mottram | 5-7 6-2 6-4 | H2H |
🇭🇷 CRO · Left-handed · b. 1939-08-27
Nikola Pilic
Active 1968–1978 · best rank seen: 15
310–251
6
0
0
16
11,730
Career summary
Nikola Pilic of Croatia is a former left-handed player who competed on the ATP tour from 1968 to 1978. He won 6 tour-level singles titles, from a career match record of 310–251 (55.3%). His strongest surface by win rate was grass, where he went 64–39 (62%). His best three-year stretch came in 1968–1970, and he reached a peak Elo rating of 2029. His most frequent opponent was John Newcombe, whom he faced 27 times with a record of 7–20.
Hard
46–47 (49.5%)
Clay
107–87 (55.2%)
Grass
64–39 (62.1%)
Carpet
85–77 (52.5%)
Main rivals
| Opponent | Record | Meetings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺 John Newcombe | 7–20 | 27 | Full H2H |
| 🇿🇦 Cliff Drysdale | 4–17 | 21 | Full H2H |
| 🇺🇸 Earl Butch Buchholz | 8–9 | 17 | Full H2H |
| 🇫🇷 Pierre Barthes | 10–5 | 15 | Full H2H |
| 🇳🇱 Tom Okker | 5–10 | 15 | Full H2H |
| 🇬🇧 Roger Taylor | 7–6 | 13 | Full H2H |
| 🇺🇸 Arthur Ashe | 2–9 | 11 | Full H2H |
| 🇦🇺 Tony Roche | 2–9 | 11 | Full H2H |
| 🇦🇺 Bob Carmichael | 9–1 | 10 | Full H2H |
Opponents faced 10+ times; walkovers excluded.
Grand Slam record
| '68 | '69 | '70 | '71 | '72 | '73 | '74 | '75 | '76 | '77 | '78 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Open | 4R | 3R | |||||||||
| Roland Garros | 2R | 1R | F | 3R | 2R | 1R | 2R | ||||
| Wimbledon | 1R | 1R | 2R | 3R | 3R | 1R | 4R | 3R | |||
| US Open | 4R | 3R | 4R | 4R | 3R | QF |
Season by season
Gold band: best three-year window (1968–1970).
Elo over time
Pre-match Elo, sampled across the career. Peak: 2029.
Career titles (6)
- 1975 Aviles Clay
- 1972 Essen WCT Carpet
- 1971 Midland Hard
- 1970 Bristol Grass
- 1969 Stockholm Hard
- 1968 Los Altos Hills WCT Carpet
Match results
| R32 | L | Colin Dowdeswell | 6-3 7-6 | H2H |
| R32 | L | Vladimir Zednik | 6-3 6-3 | H2H |
| R64 | L | Jan Kodes | 3-6 6-3 7-5 7-6 | H2H |
| R128 | W | Herve Gauvain | 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-2 | H2H |
| R16 | L | Balazs Taroczy | 6-2 3-6 7-5 | H2H |
| R32 | W | Brian Fairlie | 6-2 6-7 7-5 | H2H |
| R64 | L | Paul McNamee | 6-4 7-6 | H2H |
| R32 | L | Jiri Granat | 6-7 6-3 6-3 | H2H |
Methodology
Titles include Slams, Masters, Tour Finals, 500s, 250s, legacy tour events and Olympic gold; Davis Cup is excluded, and walkovers are excluded from all win–loss records. GOAT points value every round reached, scaled per tier (Slam title 2000 anchor; ranking includes Slam champions only, but every player's points are shown here). Elo is a chess-style rating over the full match history (K = 250/(n+5)^0.4); the timeline shows pre-match ratings, sampled. The gold band on the season chart marks the best three-consecutive-year window.