Slobodan "Boba" Živojinović (Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Живојиновић, pronounced [slɔbɔ̌dan ʒiʋɔjǐːnɔʋit͡ɕ]; born 23 July 1963) is a Serbian former professional tennis player who competed for SFR Yugoslavia.
Together with Nenad Zimonjić, he is the only tennis player from Serbia to be the world No. 1 in doubles. As a singles player, he reached the semifinals of the 1985 Australian Open and the 1986 Wimbledon Championships, achieving a career-high ranking of world No. 19 in October 1987.
Živojinović represented SFR Yugoslavia as the number 15 seed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, where he was defeated in the second round by France's Guy Forget.
The right-hander won two career singles titles (Houston, 1986 and Sydney, 1988), as well as eight doubles titles. He reached his highest singles ATP ranking on 26 October 1987, when he became world No. 19. Živojinović was known for his size that made him the original big-boom server before Goran Ivanisevic. He built his game on his big serve, enhanced greatly by his height and his muscular thighs. He was an exciting player to watch and a very troubling one to play against. His ace total in a match often became difficult to overcome and players did not look forward to competing against him.
Živojinović's most notable Grand Slam results were two semifinals. As an unseeded player at the 1985 Australian Open, he memorably beat John McEnroe in a five-set quarterfinal to reach the semifinals (where he lost in straight sets to Mats Wilander). The next year, at the 1986 Wimbledon semifinal, again as an unseeded player, he lost to Ivan Lendl in a five-set match.
Over the course of his career, Živojinović amassed an overall singles record of 152 wins and 139 defeats. He was much more successful in doubles competition, winning the US Open in 1986 with Andrés Gómez. The same year, he won three more tournaments. He was ranked as the world No. 1 doubles player on 8 September 1986.
Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)
Doubles: 14 (8 titles, 6 runner-ups)
Team competitions: 1 (1 title)
Grand Slam singles performance timeline
In the early-to-mid 1980s, active professional tennis player Živojinović became engaged to Zorica Desnica. The couple had a son, Filip, in 1985. They split up during the late 1980s.
In October 1989, Živojinović began dating the Yugoslav singer Lepa Brena, having reportedly met her at the premiere of her star vehicle film Hajde da se volimo 2. Their 7 December 1991 wedding—a civic ceremony at Belgrade's InterContinental Hotel with tennis player Ion Țiriac as the groom's best man—was a media event throughout Yugoslavia. The level of attention it generated in the country was such that Brena's manager Raka Đokić subsequently released a VHS tape of the wedding for commercial exploitation. The couple's child, son Stefan Emerald Živojinović, was born in May 1992 in New York City. Their second son, Viktor Ernest Živojinović, was born in March 1998 in Miami.
On 23 November 2000, Živojinović's and Lepa Brena's eight-year-old son Stefan was kidnapped by members of the Zemun Clan organized crime group in front of the family's home in Belgrade. Five days later, after his family paid a ransom reported to be more than DM2 million, the child was released by being left on the side of the Belgrade—Niš motorway.
Slobodan Živojinović at the Association of Tennis Professionals
Slobodan Živojinović at World Tennis
Slobodan Živojinović at the Davis Cup (archived)
Slobodan Živojinović at Olympedia
Slobodan Živojinović at Olympics.com