Male Athlete of the Year: Matija Pecotic

Senior Matija Pecotic, the Daily Princetonian’s 2013 Male Athlete of the Year, says his original goal for his Princeton career was to make the starting lineup of the men’s tennis team. It’s safe to say that Pecotic, who recently became the first person ever to be named Ivy League Men’s Tennis Player of the Year three times, underestimated himself.

Coming from Malta, by no means a hotbed of tennis talent, Pecotic flew under the recruiting radar and came to Princeton without much fanfare. He quickly made his presence felt, however, starting at the No. 1 or No. 2 position every match the second half of his freshman spring. In the second-to-last match of that year on April 16, 2010, Pecotic lost to Cornell’s Jonathan Jaklitsch. Since then, he has not lost an Ivy dual singles match.

Pecotic’s streak of 22 straight league wins will end not with a loss but with his graduation—he went undefeated in the Ancient Eight his sophomore, junior and senior years. During that time, he has risen to national prominence. Currently ranked 15th in the country, he has been ranked as high as No. 2 this season.

Dominating the Ivy League for three years is no small feat, but the league is in no way a tennis powerhouse. It therefore took much of the collegiate tennis world by surprise when he catapulted himself into the ranks of elite singles players last fall. He lost just two singles matches that season while winning 26. Ranked 67th in the nation, he proved that he was far better than his ranking, taking down players ranked 28th and 35th. He highlighted his season with a defeat of USC’s Raymond Sarmiento, the No. 9 player in the country, which came after a shocking comeback victory over Sarmiento’s teammate Roberto Quiroz.

“The rest of the tennis community saw them as legends,” freshman Jonathan Carcione said. “And Matija went in and took them down.”

He jumped 65 spots in the rankings to tie for No. 2 going into this spring spreason. His success seemed to come from nowhere to some, but not his teammates.

“We’ve always known what he’s capable of,” Carcione said. “He’s just incredibly talented, and we saw it coming.”

Though he knew he was talented, it took Pecotic a while to see what his team was seeing. It took some time after the USC matches, he says, to get used to being an elite player.

“I knew that I had a huge target on my back,” Pecotic said. “You have people playing with absolutely zero pressure against you, and you’re playing with all the pressure in the world.”

Despite the pressure, he went into his final spring season with the same attitude as always.

“He steps on the court every day to get better and to perform on the highest level,” head coach Billy Pate said.

“He's very inspirational based on his results and the work ethic that he brings to practice every day,” Carcione said. “He's very serious.”

And he put up serious numbers. Pecotic went 16-3 in singles play, winning his last nine matches, and went 15-3 in doubles, helping Princeton to a 16-6 record and tied-for-second finish in the Ivy League after 2012’s 12-12 season, which saw the Tigers tie for fourth in the league.

Pecotic’s impact on his team goes far beyond its improved record. Carcione credited his captain, who took him under his wing this year, with proving that Ivy League teams players can compete with stars from powerhouses like Virginia and USC.

Pecotic feels that this contribution to Ivy League tennis is more important than his impressive individual numbers.

“If there’s one thing that I’d like to have changed, it’s the image of an Ivy League tennis player to people outside the conference,” he said. “They considered the Ivy League as a little soft, a little preppy. They didn’t consider them relentless, resilient warriors.”

“That’s more important than any kind of number or stats,” he added.

“He’s proven that at an Ivy League school you can do it all,” Carcione said. “People want to accomplish what he accomplished—he raised the standard for what’s possible here.”

He has also helped bring more talent to the program.

“We’ve used him in recruiting in terms of showing kids what they can do once they get here,” Pate said.

Though Princeton’s season is over, Pecotic’s is not. He was the only Ivy player selected to the NCAA men’s individual tournament in late May. It will be his second tournament appearance in a row—last season he was ranked 118th and lost in the first round. Aside from his rise to national prominence, Pecotic says there are several reasons to believe he will do better this year.

“The field is very different this year, and I’ve also had two very good weeks of practice. But that’s never a guarantee—I could lose in the first round or I could go through and win the tournament,” he said. “But I feel like I’m going to have a good run.”

After that, Pecotic plans on becoming a professional tennis player for two years, then evaluating his prospects from there. Pate believes Pecotic, whom he often refers to as an “outlier” has a shot at making it as a pro.

“Tennis is a very fair system, and a very fair sport,” he said. “The guys who make it, they’ve earned it. He has a chance—he could be a top-100 player.”

Though this plan is official, Pecotic does not pretend to know how his life will go once he leaves Princeton. But one thing is for certain:

“I’ve far exceeded what I expected to achieve,” he said.