Matija Pecotic should perhaps consider giving up his day job after the full-time finance professional on Tuesday stunned former world No. 8 Jack Sock on his ATP Tour main draw debut at the Delray Beach Open.
The 33-year-old Croatian qualifier, who is a director of capital markets for Wexford Real Estate Investors — an affiliate of the US$4 billion investment firm Wexford Capital — rallied to beat Sock 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Pecotic reached a career-high ranking of No. 206 in 2015, but temporarily quit the sport due to complications following stomach surgery. He then went on to join Harvard Business School, where he rediscovered his love for the game.
Pecotic sealed the win in front of his boss, who is a long-time friend of his coach, Dominik Hrbaty.
“I had to leave work early today,” Pecotic said jokingly. “I had to send an e-mail to the whole team. My boss let me off. I’m going to have to ask for another day off tomorrow.”
The world No. 784, who meets Marcos Giron next, said the win over Sock in the opening round was unexpected, but he did not approach the match thinking he did not have a chance.
“You’ve got to be realistic,” Pecotic said. “This is a former top 10 guy with an incredible amount of tennis experience and a huge serve. He came out serving 134mph [216kph] on the first serve.”
“It would be arrogant to think I’m going to come out and expect to win, but I figured if I could sink my teeth into the match and work on the two or three patterns I prepared before, that I’m going to have a chance,” he said.
In other tennis news, Taiwanese sisters Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching on Tuesday beat the US’ Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Australia’s Ellen Perez 7-6 (7/5), 1-6, 12-10 in their round-of-16 Qatar Total Open women’s double match at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha.
Aditional reporting by staff writer, with AP
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