Pickleball may be taking the real estate world by storm, but Matija Pecotic prefers its higher-energy cousin — tennis.
Indeed, Pecotic, who is the director of capital markets for Wexford Real Estate Investors in Palm Beach, Florida, lived his dream last week when he took part in the Delray Beach Open tennis tournament last week, Bloomberg News reported.
The 33-year-old, who is ranked 784th in the world, ultimately fell in straight sets to No. 55 Marcos Giron, but not before creating some lifelong memories.
He got into the tournament as an alternate and a slot opened up. Last week he won three qualifying matches, including one over Jack Sock, who had once been ranked in the top 10 in the world and won the Delray Beach Open in 2017.
“Hopefully this has shown that I can play at a high level,” Pecotic told Bloomberg News. “I’ve actually never gotten a wild card to any event in my life — all my results have been meritocratic, so if this leads to opportunities at other big events, I would consider putting Wexford on pause, I wouldn’t quit.”
It’s only fair, considering he had to put his tennis career on pause due to a health issue after becoming the first three-time Ivy League player of the year at Princeton, the outlet said. During that time he also served as a practice partner for fellow Croat No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who needed a lefty to serve as a stand in for Rafa Nadal in the 2013 U.S. Open final.
Also while in college, he was backed financially by investor Bill Ackman and ultimately worked in Ackman’s Table Management office.
But instead of pursuing professional tennis — he rose as high as No. 206 in the world — Pecotic got his MBA at Harvard Business School.
In 2019, he gave pro tennis another shot, but Covid-19 hit and he moved to Florida to work at Wexler.
His bosses, Wexford co-founders Chuck Davidson and Joe Jacobs, showed their support for Pecotic by attending the Giron match.
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After his loss, however, he was back in the office, where he said he had a four-hour meeting scheduled to go over more than 40 projects.
Still, he hasn’t ruled out a pro career, and he even got an Instagram message from Djokovic, who wrote in Croatian, “Matija, my brother! You don’t belong in the office just yet. See you on the court soon,” the outlet reported.
— Ted Glanzer