Princeton University Athletics
Pecotic '13 Wins Battle of Tigers on Long Road to U.S. Open
June 25, 2015 | Men's Tennis
Only one was guaranteed to move on in the pursuit of a U.S. Open bid, and the former Tiger defeated the future Tiger at the Mercer County Tennis Center to win the Middle States section of the U.S. Open National Playoffs.
Matija Pecotic '13 defeated incoming freshman Jimmy Wasserman 6-2, 6-2 on June 24 in nearby West Windsor to move on to the U.S. Open National Playoff Championship to be held August 21-24 in New Haven, Connecticut. There, the winners of the 14 sections across the nation will play, with the winner entering the U.S. Open qualifying draw.
Pecotic was the top seed in the qualifier and showed incredible dominance in rolling through to the final. In his six wins, all in straight sets, Pecotic has given up a total of nine games, with four of those going to Wasserman. For his part, Wasserman, the draw's third seed, didn't have a third set until his semifinal match.
While Wasserman is set to begin his Tiger career in the fall, Pecotic built a resume that places him among the greats in program history, winning three Ivy League Player of the Year honors, two NCAA singles championship berths and Princeton's first ITA All-America honor in 29 years.
Since Princeton, Pecotic has climbed the international rankings, entering at 1,677 in October 2013, breaking the top 1,000 in April 2014 and the top 500 in April 2015. After reaching a career high of 296 earlier this month, Pecotic stands at 298 as of June 22. He has won three of the last four tournaments in which he has played, taking the Nigeria F1 and F2 Futures events in April and May against players from three continents before sweeping five Americans at the the USA F16A Futures event earlier this month in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.