Slobodan Živojinović

Serbian tennis player Slobodan Živojinović was a former doubles world number one and won a doubles Grand Slam title at the height of his career. Živojinović played professionally from 1981 to 1992, during which time he married Lepa Brena, one of the most popular folk singers in the former Yugoslavia, putting him into the media spotlight.

Živojinović won two ATP singles titles, the first in 1986 with the second in 1988, but he was known more for his success as a doubles player. His first ATP doubles title came in July 1985 in Boston with Libor Pimek. Živojinović went on to win a further seven ATP doubles titles, with three of those coming with Boris Becker. At Grand Slams Živojinović was a semi-finalist in the singles at the 1985 Australian Open and at Wimbledon in 1986. His biggest win came in the doubles at the 1986 US Open when he and Ecuador’s Andrés Gómez beat the Swedish pair of Joakim Nyström and Mats Wilander. Živojinović competed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, pairing with Goran Ivanišević in the doubles.

In 1991 Živojinović married Lepa Brena and an expensive wedding ceremony took place at the Hotel Beograd InterContinental with a video of the event being commercially released. In November 2000 their eldest son was kidnapped by the Serbian mafia and was released five days later after a hefty ransom was paid. From 2006 to 2011 Živojinović was the President of the Tennis Federation of Serbia.