Nick Bollettieri, the Corridor of Fame tennis coach who labored with a number of the sport’s greatest stars, together with Andre Agassi and Monica Seles, and based an academy that revolutionized the event of younger athletes, has died. He was 91.
Bollettieri died Sunday evening at residence in Florida after a sequence of well being points, his supervisor, Steve Shulla, mentioned in a phone interview with The Related Press on Monday.
“When he grew to become sick, he bought so many great messages from former college students and gamers and coaches. Many came visiting him. He bought movies from others,” Shulla mentioned. “It was great. He touched so many lives and he had an amazing send-off.”
Recognized for his gravelly voice, leathery pores and skin and wraparound sun shades — and a person who referred to as himself the “Michelangelo of Tennis” regardless of by no means enjoying professionally — Bollettieri helped no fewer than 10 gamers who went on to be No. 1 on this planet rankings. That group contains sisters Serena and Venus Williams, Jim Courier, Maria Sharapova, Agassi and Seles.
He remained lively into his 80s, touring the world to drop in on the highest tournaments and, in 2014, grew to become solely the fourth coach to be inducted into the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame. That was the identical 12 months one other one in all his proteges, Kei Nishikori, reached the ultimate of the U.S. Open.
Six of his pupils already are within the Corridor of Fame, a quantity certain to develop as soon as others are eligible.
“I solid my very own path, which others discovered to be unorthodox and downright loopy,” Bollettieri mentioned in his induction speech on the corridor in Newport, Rhode Island. “Sure, I'm loopy. Nevertheless it takes loopy individuals to do issues that different individuals say can't be accomplished.”
The Bollettieri Tennis Academy opened in 1978 in Bradenton, Florida, and was bought by IMG in 1987.
The IMG Academy now spans greater than 600 acres and affords applications in additional than a half-dozen sports activities along with tennis.
Bollettieri was an educator who would brag he by no means learn a ebook, by no means thoughts that he majored in philosophy in faculty and even gave regulation faculty a strive, albeit for lower than a 12 months.
He additionally was an adept self-promoter — one who would publish a pair of autobiographies — regardless of that detractors dismissed him as a hustler and huckster. The reality is, any criticism was no match for the astounding success of his pupils.
His educating strategies had been extensively copied and tennis academies dot the globe right this moment.
“Our sport misplaced one in all its most passionate coaches & advocates,” Corridor of Fame member Billie Jean King wrote on Twitter. “Nick was all the time optimistic & was capable of get the very best out of everybody lucky sufficient to work w/him.”
Bollettieri’s first scholar to succeed in No. 1 was Boris Becker in 1991. Then got here others, reminiscent of Martina Hingis, Marcelo Rios and Jelena Jankovic.
Simply as rewarding, Bollettieri mentioned, had been the successes of much less completed gamers.
“The gas that has sustained me to the summit is, certainly, my ardour to assist others turn into champions of life, not champions simply on the tennis court docket,” he mentioned. “Nothing makes me extra completely satisfied than once I run right into a previous scholar or obtain a sort be aware telling me how I modified their lives, that they're higher mother and father, legal professionals, docs, CEOs and folks due to the influence I made on their lives.”
Bollettieri’s devotion to his gamers got here at a price. For a lot of his profession, he was on the highway 9 months out of yearly, and he cited his journey schedule as one motive he was married eight instances.
Survivors embody his spouse, Cindi, seven kids and 4 grandchildren, in keeping with Shulla, who mentioned a celebration of Bollettieri’s life is deliberate for March.
Nicholas James Bollettieri was born July 31, 1931, in Pelham, New York. He earned a philosophy diploma and performed tennis at Spring Hill School in Cellular, Alabama, and was a paratrooper within the Military earlier than enrolling in regulation faculty on the College of Miami.
For spending cash, Bollettieri started educating tennis for $1.50 an hour, in keeping with the Corridor of Fame. Greater than 60 years later, his charge was $900.
After a number of months, he dropped out of regulation faculty to focus on teaching. At first, he conceded, information of tennis method wasn’t his forte.
“I didn’t know a lot about educating the sport,” he mentioned. “The reward God gave me was the power to learn individuals.”
Bollettieri gained reward for his motivational abilities, yelling when he deemed it mandatory. He had a watch for expertise and was a visionary concerning boot-camp coaching for younger athletes who lived collectively.
He purchased a membership in 1978, and college students lived in his home. Two years later, he borrowed $1 million from a good friend to construct a first-of-its-kind advanced in what had been a tomato area.
The location now has a boarding faculty, 55 tennis courts and services for seven different sports activities, together with soccer, basketball and baseball.
Working a enterprise wasn’t Bollettieri’s sturdy swimsuit, and he bought the academy to IMG however continued to work there, stressing a tactical strategy that remodeled tennis. He urged gamers to benefit from trendy racket know-how, emphasizing energy over finesse.
The academy churned out large hitters who relied on their serve and forehand to overpower opponents. That strategy labored for Agassi, Seles, Courier and plenty of others.
“In my goals,” Bollettieri confessed with a smile, “I say, ‘Nick, you’re darn good.’”
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Steven Wine is a retired AP sports activities author.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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