For Matija Pecotic, a part-time player who works full-time in finance, it's been a long way to Delray

Editor's Note: Since this story was published, Pecotic prevailed in his ATP main-draw debut. Down 0-4 to start, Pecotic settled in before surprising Jack Sock, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. Watch the match point above.

To beat pro tennis players today is a special treat. It was totally unexpected. I’m enjoying it, going as far as I can, and if not, I’ll go back to work on Monday. Matija Pecotic, a 33-year-old Belgrade-born southpaw from Croatia who qualified for the main draw of an ATP Tour event for the first time in Delray Beach

You know the old chestnut: Good things come to those who wait. In Pecotic’s case, you can amend that to “those who wait. And wait. And wait some more.”

But the wait is officially over for the former collegiate star, thanks to a serendipitous decision to return to Delray Beach—to pick up three racquets he had left with the stringers last Friday, after failing to make the qualifying draw of the Florida-based ATP 250 as an alternate.

Pecotic, who works in finance in West Palm Beach, drove back on Saturday to retrieve his racquets, but when he turned to leave the tournament site an official told him he ought to stick around—there was still a chance he might slip into the draw at the last minute. Then, a player withdrew. It came so soon before the official start of play that the referee’s office called the wrong name when Pecotic and his opponent, Stefan Kozlov, were called and assigned to their court.

Kozlov retired while trailing Pecotic 7-6, 5-5. The world No. 784 (Pecotic still has a protected ranking) went on to beat another alternate, and former Australian Open quarterfinalist Tennys Sandgren, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Thus, he was due to play wild card Jack Sock in the first round of the main draw on Tuesday.

Pecotic might have been shocked to learn that he would not play in an ATP Tour match until age 33 back when he became an All-American at Princeton (the first since 1984) and, ultimately, the winningest player in the school’s history (a cohort that includes Tennis Channel analyst and former ATP No. 31 Leif Shiras). Pecotic was the first player ever to claim the Ivy League Player of the Year honors for three years running.

A brilliant student, Pecotic—perhaps the only tennis player ever to list spearfishing as a hobby, a nod to a childhood spent on Malta—hoped to take the same path to pro success as two ATP staples who became tour mainstays after completing all four years of college, John Isner and Steve Johnson. But Pecotic’s journey took even longer. A lot longer.

Pecotic turned pro and played his first Futures event in 2014 at age 24. He worked his way into the Top 200 in under two years, but complications from stomach surgery left him bedridden for eight months, giving him plenty of time to contemplate his future.

“That changed the trajectory and timeline of my career,” Pecotic told the media staff at Delray after qualifying. “I applied for business school (Harvard, natch) with no real expectations, but I got in.”

The catch was that Pecotic could not defer his entry, so he enrolled. He was not in Cambridge long when he came to the attention of Harvard’s varsity tennis coach, who invited the former Ivy star to work with the tennis team.

“I rediscovered my love for the game playing with those guys six days a week,” Pecotic said. “So after business school I said, ‘You know what? I’ll give it 12 months (on the tour), all-in, the full-court press, and if I get to (No. 250) in a year I will keep going.’”

Over the ensuing six months Pecotic, who has won a total of 10 ITF titles, improved by leaps and bounds. “I got to No. 320 in six months, playing the best tennis of my life, then. . . Covid hit.”

With the tour canceled, Pecotic found himself a 32-year-old journeyman tennis player stuck in Europe, an experience he described as “a tough moment.” He ultimately returned home, and went back to work at Wexford Capital, a hedge fund and real estate investment firm. The flame of his tennis ambitions has, of necessity, grown weaker, but it hasn’t guttered out yet.

“I absolutely love this game,” he said, “And I know it’s not forever and I’m 33. I try to train to the maximum every day. I hit the gym, go for a run after work. I sometimes train with my boss, who’s 70-years old, or another guy who’s in his late 50s.”

That may not sound like ideal training, but the doesn’t faze Pecotic. He added, “You find creative ways to work around things. It seems to have been enough for these two (qualifying) matches. Let’s see how the third goes.”