From Real Estate to Pro Tennis Champion
The incredible story of Matija Pecotic, and the greatest PTO request of all-time
Typically, when I prepare to write about the athletes whose stories I feature on this newsletter every week, I scour through ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and The Athletic to hunt down details about their careers.
This week, in the case of 33-year-old tennis player Matija Pecotic, I had to turn to LinkedIn.
That’s because, before last weekend, Pecotic was best known as a real estate investor. Now, he’s won one of the most unlikely matches in professional tennis history, against a former top-10 player in the world.
Pecotic was born in Malta, grinded on the youth tennis circuit, and rose to become the number-two ranked player in the country. He was also a standout student, top of his high school class, who excelled in math. He applied to American universities and got into Princeton to study finance. Even better, the Tigers coach told him he could play on the tennis team.
While earning his degree, Pecotic became one of the greatest tennis players in the school’s history, winning Ivy League player of the year three times in a row—the first player in the conference’s long history to do that. At the 2013 US Open, as Novak Djokovic was preparing for a championship match against Rafael Nadal, he needed a hard-hitting lefty to practice against and was connected to Pecotic, then in his senior year. Pecotic went to New York and rallied against the world No. 1. Afterwards, Djokovic said that Pecotic’s forehand was, “one of the best in the world,” and armed with newfound confidence, the Ivy Leaguer decided to give pro tennis a shot after graduation.
Yet while climbing the ranks of tennis’ lower leagues, Pecotic came down with staph infection following a small surgery on his stomach, leaving him, “basically bed-ridden for eight months.” Unable to play, he decided he might as well use his time to apply to business school.
Lo and behold, he got into Harvard—and any tennis dreams were sidelined for an MBA.
While at business school, Pecotic helped coach the Harvard tennis team, and being around the game, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was more for him to accomplish. He graduated in 2019 and told himself that he’d give tennis another shot for one more year—then decide whether to get a “real job.” So he entered tournaments, started climbing the rankings once again, and then…Covid hit. Everything shut down. The tennis dream, once again, would have to wait.
Pecotic polished off his resumé and got a job managing a real estate investment firm in Palm Beach with assets valued at over $1.5 billion. His boss is a 70-year-old tennis fanatic, and in the mornings before work, he’ll rally with his new hire.
Last week, the ATP, the male pro tennis association, had a small tournament in Florida called Delray Beach Open. Having some experience, Pecotic entered his name as an alternate, just in case somebody dropped out and tournament directors got desperate for another body to fill out the draw. It was the longest of shots, but the morning of the tournament, one of the organizers told Pecotic, “Hold on…” Someone had dropped out, and if he could win two qualifying matches, he’d qualify for the main draw. That’s exactly what he did, an incredible story if it ended there. In round one, he’d face former world No. 8 Jack Sock.
At work, Pecotic talked to his boss and rallying partner. He composed an email to the whole team: I’m going to have to leave the office a little early today…
Not long after clicking “send,” Pecotic found himself at Center Court, staring down Sock’s at 134 miles per hour serve. “This is a former top-10 guy with an incredible amount of tennis experience and a huge serve,” Pecotic said. “It would be arrogant to think I'm going to come out and expect to win.”
Yet Pecotic found a way to return that serve, and he kept ripping that powerful forehand of his. Pecotic lost the first set, then stormed back to take the next two. When it was all over, Pecotic had won 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. At 33, it represented his first ever ATP win. His old practice partner, Djokovic, sent a message via Instagram: “You don’t belong in the office just yet,” he said. “See you soon on the court.” Pecotic responded, naturally, on LinkedIn. “There’s a movie script in all of us,” he said.
After the match, Pecotic told reporters, “I’m going to have to ask for another day off tomorrow.”
His boss and rallying partner cheered from the crowd: PTO request approved.
🎙️ Check out the trailer to our newest narrative podcast Roughhousing, hosted by our own Iggy Monda, which explores the hidden world of hazing in high school sports. The first episode is out next week, and as a subscriber to The Word, you’ll get the first chance to hear all about it.
🍿 In other ROS news…this week, we announced that we’re making a biopic of the legendary coach and announcer John Madden. Read more details here.
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