A 33-year-old chief financial officer ranked 784th in the world celebrated an unlikely first success on the main circuit on Tuesday. Coming from the qualifications at Delray Beach, Matija Pecotic signed this achievement by beating the former member of the top 10 Jack Sock.
The Croatian won 4-6 6-2 6-2 ahead of the American, who is only 143rd in the ATP rankings. Pecotic was playing his first match on the ATP Tour, after defeating Tennys Sandgren (ex-world No. 41) in the second round of a qualifying draw in which he was admitted a few minutes before his first match.
“Second Career”
Financial director of a real estate investment company, Matija Pecotic was able to appear for the twelfth time in a table of qualifications, the fourth in his “second career” which began in September 2019. He had previously devoted himself entirely to his studies for two years.
The Croatian, who had reached the 206th rank in the hierarchy in 2015 and had played the qualifications of the four Majors between 2016 and 2017, had decided to put his career on hold after contracting a serious staph infection following an operation surgery and spent eight months in bed.
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