Filip Krajinovic’s claim to tennis fame comes from a match played four years ago that was never finished.
In March 2010, the 22-year old Serbian beat Novak Djokovic, winner of six Grand Slam titles and the current No. 2 player in the world. Krajinovic, 18 at the time, won the first set over his countryman and friend before Djokovic became ill and was forced to retire, meaning Krajinovic’s official record over one of tennis’ biggest stars is officially 1-0.
“It was an unbelievable experience for me,” Krajinovic said. “It’s always going to be in my head.”
Krajinovic still counts that victory as a career highlight, but he’d like to have others to replace it some day. Saturday’s 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over unseeded Stefan Kozlov in the semifinals of the USTA Pro Circuit Tour de Paul at Little Rock’s Pleasant Valley Country Club won’t top his victory over one of tennis’ premier players, but it’s another step in the right direction.
Krajinovic, the No. 1 seed in the Tour de Paul, rallied from a first-set loss to eventually wear down Kozlov, a 16-year old from Pembroke Pines, Fla., who is the No. 4-ranked junior in the world, to advance to his second final in a USTA Futures event in as many weeks. He’ll go for a second tournament victory in a row when he plays No. 2 seed Daniel Smethurst of Great Britain in the final at noon today.
Krajinovic, ranked No. 223 in the world, said it’s always tough playing highly ranked juniors who are playing older and higher ranked opponents. Kozlov came into the tournament unseeded and ranked 1,054th.
But after dropping the first set and falling behind 3-1 in the second, Krajinovic and his more powerful serve took over, winning 11 of the final 14 games to advance.
“It’s a lot of pressure when you play the young guys,” he said. “For example, there was nothing to lose for him today. So he was going for the shots and he was making everything.”
It’s the latest small step for Krajinovic on a long road back up the world rankings.
The victory over Djokovic helped him jump almost 200 spots in the rankings in a three-month period, and he got as high as No. 170 in June 2010. But lingering shoulder pain caused him to have surgery in order to “clean up some things” in 2011, and he didn’t play competitively for two years.
His ranking fell to as low as No. 1,433 in September 2011, and he was at No. 1,393 when he returned to the court in February 2012. He reached the finals of four tournaments in 2013 and won at Harlingen, Texas, last week to raise his ranking to the highest point since his surgery.
A victory today could raise it a bit further and keep him on track for more stages like he saw four years ago against Djokovic.
“I’ve picked up a lot of points the last two weeks,” he said. “That’s why I came to play the smaller tournaments, so I can win some matches and put my ranking up a little bit higher.”
Tour de Paul tennis
Results from the USTA Pro Circuit Tour de Paul at Little Rock’s Pleasant Valley Country Club:
SINGLES
SATURDAY’S SEMIFINALS
Filip Krajinovic, Serbia, def. Stefan Kozlov, Pembroke Pines, Fla., 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 Daniel Smethurst, Great Britain, def. Dimitar Kutrovsky, Bulgaria, 6-1, 6-3
TODAY’S FINAL
(1) Filip Krajinovic, Serbia, vs. (2) Daniel Smethurst, Great Britain, noon
DOUBLES SATURDAY’S FINAL
Jean-Yves Aubone, Miami, and Eric Quigley, Pewee Valley, Ky., def. Kyle McMorrow, Thousand Oaks, Calif., and Tucker Vorster, South Africa, 6-2, 6-4
Sports, Pages 27 on 04/13/2014