Nenad Zimonjić

Zimonjić turned pro in 1995 and remained relatively unknown outside his native country until a surprise victory in the mixed doubles at the 2004 Australian Open. Paired for the first time with Russian Elena Bovina, he beat defending champions Martina Navratilova and Leander Paes in straight sets in an hour and nine minutes. Alongside Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, he won the 2006 French Open crown with a straight-sets victory over Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva. At the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, Zimonjić reached the final of the men's doubles alongside France's Fabrice Santoro and the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles.

In 2007, Zimonjić reached the 2007 French Open mixed doubles final as the defending champions with Katarina Srebotnik and lost to Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram. He left Santoro after Wimbledon and teamed with Mahesh Bhupathi until after the 2007 US Open. After the US Open, Nenad left Bhupathi and partnered with Daniel Nestor,[5] who won the French Open earlier in the year alongside Mark Knowles. The team won the 2007 St. Petersburg Open, without losing a set. Nestor and Zimonjić later won 2008 Wimbledon[6] (Zimonjić's first Grand Slam), 2009 Wimbledon and 2010 French Open.

In 2009, they defended their Wimbledon title & won 5 Masters 1000 titles. At the World Team Cup as a part of the Serbian team. With Victor Troicki, he won two decisive games against Italian and Argentinian teams; as a result, Serbia finished first in its group, and then proceeded to beat Germany in the final encounter.

In 2010, they finished runners-up at the Australian Open, later on in the year he won both the doubles with Daniel Nestor and the mixed doubles with Katarina Srebotnik at Roland Garros. Zimonjic ended his partnership with Nestor after winning the ATP World Tour Finals.

In 2011, he partnered with Michaël Llodra, with whom he won one Masters 1000 title & four ATP 500 titles. Their partnership ended mid-way through 2012, after Roland Garros. In 2014, Zimonjic & Nestor renewed their partnership, which saw them both return to the top 10 by May & ranked 3 by the end of the year. In 2015 he started the year partnering Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, then teamed up with Marcin Matkowski; despite not winning a title together, the Polish-Serbian duo qualified for the World Tour Finals. Zimonjic won titles each year for 16 straight seasons and finished 12 consecutive seasons, starting in 2004, ranked in the ATP doubles top 20. Since 2016, when he played doubles at the Rio Olympics with Novak Djokovic, Zimonjic hasn't had a steady partner for a full season.

On 26 July 2017 the Serbian became the 10th player to record 700 doubles match wins (or more).[7]

In June 2018, Zimonjic underwent bilateral hip replacement surgery.[8] He returned to the ATP tour in February 2019 at the Sofia Open, where he and compatriot Viktor Troicki had won the doubles title two years prior.

He has a very powerful first serve that he can hit at up to 235 km/h (146 mph).

Although Zimonjic never officially announced his retirement, he didn't play on the ATP Tour for more than two years since Dubai Tennis Championships 2021.[9]

Partnering Marion Bartoli, Zimonjic won the inaugural Wimbledon mixed invitation doubles 2022. They beat Todd Woodbridge and Cara Black in straight sets in the final.[10]

In 2023, partnering Rennae Stubbs, Zimonjic successfully defended his Wimbledon mixed invitation doubles title. They beat Greg Rusedski and Conchita Martinez in straight sets in the final.[11]

In 2023 he announced his intention to return to the ATP tour.[12]

In August 1994, Zimonjić won his first professional singles title, beating Miles MacLagan on clay at a satellite tournament in Hungary. He went on to win four other ITF satellite events, as well as four Challenger tour titles in singles: Kiev (Ukraine) in 1998, Belo Horizonte (Brazil) in 2000, Andrezieux (France) in 2001, and Belgrade (Serbia) in 2004. In 2004, he defeated Andre Agassi in St Pölten, and in 2005 on the grass of Halle, he defeated Nicolas Kiefer. Other recognised opponents include Ivo Karlovic in 2000, Nicolas Mahut in 2001.

Zimonjić (in the front) with Novak Djokovic during the Davis cup match against Czech Republic

Zimonjić has been a member of Serbia Davis Cup team (previously Yugoslavia Davis Cup team and Serbia and Montenegro Davis Cup team, respectively) since 1995, playing both singles and doubles, and in 2003–2004 he was the playing captain of the national team. In recent years, with the emergence of highly ranked Serbian singles players Novak Djokovic, Janko Tipsarević, and Viktor Troicki, Zimonjić became a doubles specialist on the team, partnering all of them, as well as Dušan Vemić and Ilija Bozoljac.

In 2010, Serbia won its first ever Davis Cup title, following the victories over United States (3–2), Croatia (4–1), Czech Republic (3–2), and France in the final match (3–2). Zimonjić played in all four doubles rubbers over the course of the competition, winning once (against Croatia, partnering Tipsarević) and losing the other three times (partnering Tipsarević, Djokovic, and Troicki, respectively). To celebrate the win, all the players shaved their heads. The central celebration was held in Belgrade in front of several thousand fans, and the Serbian national postal service issued a stamp picturing the players.[13]

Leon Zimonjić in 2011

In the 2013 quarterfinals against the United States, he and Ilija Bozoljac had an impressive five set victory against the no. 1 ranked Bryan brothers.[14]

Zimonjić was named Serbia Davis Cup team captain in 2003-2004 and from January 2017 till December 2020 when he was unexpectedly replaced by Victor Troicki.[15][16][17] He was also the 2020 ATP Cup captain when Serbia won the inaugural 2020 cup.[18]

	FR Yugoslavia									FRY			Serbia
Tournament	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	SR	W–L	Win%
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	SF	2R	1R	2R	3R	1R	QF	QF	2R	F	QF	3R	2R	SF	3R	A	2R	1R	A	A	A	A	0 / 19	35–19	65%
French Open	A	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	A	2R	2R	QF	1R	SF	F	SF	W	SF	QF	2R	QF	QF	3R	SF	A	A	A	A	A	1 / 17	44–16	73%
Wimbledon	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	3R	3R	3R	F	QF	F	SF	W	W	2R	SF	1R	QF	QF	QF	3R	A	A	A	NH	A	A	2 / 18	51–16	76%
US Open	A	A	Q2	A	3R	3R	3R	3R	1R	2R	1R	QF	2R	3R	QF	3R	3R	1R	2R	3R	QF	1R	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 18	28–18	61%
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–3	2–4	8–4	5–3	3–4	8–4	8–4	10–4	12–4	16–3	14–3	14–3	13–4	5–4	6–4	12–4	11–4	4–3	5–2	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	3 / 72	158–69	70%
Year-end championship
ATP Finals	Did not qualify										F	RR	DNQ	W	RR	W	RR	DNQ		RR	RR	Did not qualify							2 / 8	16–14	53%
National representation
Olympics1	NH	A	Not Held			1R	Not Held			A	Not Held			1R	Not Held			QF	Not Held			2R	Not Held				A	NH	0 / 4	3–4	43%
Davis Cup	Z3	Z2	Z2	Z2	A	Z3	Z2	Z2	Z2	Z1	Z1	PO	PO	1R	1R	W	SF	QF	F	1R	QF	QF	SF	A	A	NH	A	A	1 / 10	30–19	61%
Win–loss	5–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–0	2–1	2–0	1–3	2–1	2–3	2–2	0–2	1–1	1–3	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	1 / 14	33–23	59%
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	A	2R	2R	QF	QF	A	F	1R	F	1R	1R	1R	2R	SF	SF	QF	A	A	NH	A	A	0 / 15	22–15	59%
Miami	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	QF	A	1R	2R	1R	2R	SF	1R	1R	2R	QF	QF	QF	QF	1R	1R	1R	1R	A	NH	A	A	0 / 19	16–19	46%
Monte Carlo	A	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	2R	A	W	W	F	2R	2R	W	W	2R	SF	W	SF	SF	2R	1R	A	A	NH	A	A	5 / 17	31–12	72%
Madrid	Not Held							1R	A	1R	F	QF	2R	QF	W	F	F	2R	1R	W	F	QF	1R	A	A	NH	A	A	2 / 15	23–13	64%
Rome	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	A	2R	QF	QF	W	F	W	2R	QF	QF	2R	W	2R	2R	A	A	A	A	A	A	3 / 14	20–11	65%
Canada	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	2R	2R	QF	2R	W	SF	QF	W	QF	1R	SF	QF	1R	A	A		NH	A	A	2 / 15	18–13	58%
Cincinnati	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	1R	QF	QF	QF	SF	W	2R	F	1R	2R	QF	F	2R	A	A	A	A	A	A	1 / 15	18–13	60%
Shanghai	Not Held														2R	QF	F	2R	2R	2R	QF	QF	2R	A	A	Not Held			0 / 9	9–9	50%
Paris	A	A	A	A	Q1	QF	SF	1R	A	1R	1R	F	F	2R	W	QF	QF	2R	2R	2R	2R	1R	1R	A	A	A	A	A	1 / 17	19–16	54%
Hamburg	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	A	A	2R	SF	SF	2R	W	Not Masters Series														1 / 6	10–5	67%
Stuttgart	A	A	A	A	A	SF	QF	Discontinued																					0 / 2	4–2	67%
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	5–4	7–7	1–5	1–4	10–8	12–8	15–9	13–7	18–7	21–4	14–8	17–8	8–9	9–8	17–7	13–9	7–8	2–6	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	15 / 144	190–128	60%
Career statistics
	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	Career
Tournaments	0	0	0	2	14	23	20	17	23	26	22	22	22	23	25	25	23	24	23	23	25	24	28	9	9	1	1	0	454
Titles	0	0	0	0	1	2	1	1	2	1	2	3	5	5	9	7	4	3	3	4	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	54
Finals	0	0	0	0	2	3	3	1	4	3	5	6	7	8	11	11	8	4	4	6	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	91
Overall W–L	0–0	2–0	1–1	1–2	14–12	32–21	33–20	20–15	31–21	32–24	33–22	43–21	49–18	49–18	61–17	59–23	50–22	38–26	31–22	48–22	41–28	15–25	25–27	1–9	0–9	0–1	0–1	0–0	710–427
Year-end rank	361	248	195	125	86	29	21	51	32	18	11	11	5	1	3	3	6	20	14	3	15	61	35	461	405	460	1241	–	62.45%

¹ 2020 Summer Olympics is postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic.