@TennisPublisher
There is a doctor in the house on the ATP Tour in doubles and he’s doing a lot of operating.
His name is Jan Zielinski and he earned the nickname “Dr. Z” while at the University of Georgia for the way he “operates” on the tennis court with the precision of a surgeon.
“I think it came from me just operating on the opponents, basically just performing surgeries,” said Zielinski of his nick-name which was coined by the Sawyer Duncan, the brother of his former Georgia Bulldog teammate Walker Duncan. “He came up with something like Dr. Z, by me just playing very well and performing a clean surgery on the opponents, and I think it came from that. And it stayed. It stayed with me. I like it. It’s fun.”
Zielinski has had much success in the operating room starting in 2023, which has been a breakthrough year for the native of Warsaw, Poland. He posted a runner-up finish at the Australian Open, his first major doubles final, while winning the prestigious Italian Championships in Rome, both with partner Hans Nys of Monaco. The duo has established themselves as one of the top 10 best doubles teams in the world.
“It’s a lot of ups and downs as well,” said Zielinski of his 2023 season at the U.S. Open, where he and Nys reached the quarterfinals. “I mean, besides the Australian Open and Rome Masters 1000, which we won, it was a lot of unfortunate results in the first rounds. There were a lot of super tiebreakers that we didn’t win.”
Besides winning tournament titles, consistency and avoiding first-round losses is the goal for Zielinski and Hys, he said. With their quarterfinal loss at the U.S. Open, the other main goal for the remainder of the 2023 season is to qualify for the year-end ATP Tour World Finals eight-team doubles field, where they are in contention.
Zielinski began his pro career after playing four seasons for the University of Georgia, highlighted by an NCAA doubles runner-up showing in 2017 alongside Robert Loeb of the United States.
“Jan showed right away in his freshman year that he had tremendous potential and a knack for doubles,” said Georgia men’s tennis coach Manny Diaz. “I am not the least bit surprised with his success on the pro tour and think he will be among the top 10 for many years to come.”
“It was amazing,” Zielinski said of this time as a Georgia Bulldog. “It was one of the best three and a half years of my life. They took great care of me. We’ve all been like one big family.”
Zielinski has many memories on and off the court during his time in Athens, Georgia as a student at UGA. He singled out the 2017 season – his sophomore year – where in addition to reaching the NCAA doubles final, he had memorable wins in dramatic NCAA team tournament wins for Georgia in front of thousands of home fans in Athens as the Bulldogs made a run to the team tournament semifinals.
“Definitely making a run at home (in Athens, Georgia in 2017) to the semis of NCAAs,” Zielinski said of his best memory of being a Georgia Bulldog tennis team member. “We beat USC in the round of 16, a crazy match… then we played a crazy match against UCLA in the quarterfinals where we had to stop because of the rain. And then we came back from 1-2 down. We ended up winning 4-2. I was in the beginning of the third set against Maxime Cressy, who playing really good right now, and I was the one that clinched that match. I remember that was a pretty crazy, crazy night. A lot of great memories, a lot of great pictures, videos, and then obviously making a doubles run with Robert Loeb to the doubles final, and being up a set and a break in the finals, coming very close to actually getting that title, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen, but it was still a great run.”
Zielinski gave a pro singles career a bit of a go, earning a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 769 in 2021, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that his destiny in pro tennis was certainly in doubles.
“Basically since day one, I would say, I knew I have something extra for doubles, and if singles doesn’t work out, I can always fully focus on doubles, and probably make it there,” he said. “My dad taught me how to play proper doubles, how to cover the net, and he taught me those instincts of doubles, basically the proper way to play.”
“The transition from college to pros wasn’t easy,” he continued. “I mean, you start from the very beginning, from the smallest tournaments, which is a grind where you don’t make any money, and you have to spend the money to actually even play. And you never know if it’s ever going to pay off, and if you’re ever going to actually be making money out of that sport. You can always believe, you can always work hard, but it’s never fully given to you. Especially coming from Poland, where we don’t have that many tournaments in the country where we can get the wildcards compared to France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Czech, you name it. They all have plenty of opportunities to play, plenty of tournaments that can get into wildcards to the main draws and then get the points without. And basically, by skipping the lower tournaments, we have to find our way from the very bottom. And yeah, I managed. Obviously, COVID hit when I was at my peak, winning a couple tournaments in a row, so it wasn’t the best timing for me. But yeah, I managed, came back, and here we are today.”
Zielinski’s rise up the rankings has come on the heels of the success of fellow Poles Iga Swiatek, who has reached the WTA Tour’s world No. 1 ranking, and Hubert “Huby” Hurkacz, who has reached the top 10 rankings and the semifinals of Wimbledon, defeating Roger Federer en route. Zielinski has played Davis Cup for Poland since 2021 and is in contention to play at the 2024 Olympic Games.
“It’s been great to see Polish crew, I would say, doing so well on such a big stage like this and other majors and other big tournaments,” Zielinski said. “Huby has been someone that I looked up to for the last couple of years, even though he is a younger player. He’s been my best friend since I don’t know how many years. When I was in college, or starting after college, he was the one that I was looking up to, and I was trying to make it here to be with him and to keep him company. He was pretty lonely here. He was the only one basically that I was playing at that level.”
Zielinski said he has a good relationship with Swiatek, the three-time French Open champion, but admits “We’re not like besties.” Said Zielinski, “We’re not texting every day, but yeah, it’s good. We always say hi, asking about the scores of each other’s matches, saying good luck and everything. Yeah, she’s a very nice girl. She’s a very nice person.”
While Zielinski hob-nobs with his fellow Poles in pro tennis around the world, he also has had bonding moments with fellow Georgia Bulldogs on tour. He follows the Georgia football team when he can and has watched the National Championship games in January of 2022 and 2023 while in Australia alongside fellow Georgia great John Isner on the invitation of Steve Baldas, a former All-American tennis player at Georgia in the 1990s who is a sports executive in Australia. Zielinski does admit that when he travels the world, his identification as a Georgia Bulldog is definitely recognized. Does he ever hear anyone yell “Go Dawgs” or bark at him at tournaments around the world?
“Yeah, it happens once in a while,” he said. “I would say once every month, two maybe, but it happens.”
