Nick Bollettieri, former tennis coach who solid legends like Agassi or Sharapova, dies

The star tennis coach within the Nineteen Nineties, he’s each admired and hated for the harshness of his strategies.

Nick Bollettieri, former tennis coach who solid legends of his sport like Andre Agassi or Maria SharapovaHe has died on the age of 91, introduced this Monday the IMG Academy, the tennis college he based in Florida, United States.

The star coach of tennis within the Nineteen Nineties, each admired and loathed for his typically controversial strategies, championed tennis that relied on a really intense physique and plenty of competitors.

Educated ten gamers who reached No. 1 on the planetamongst that are Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, Sharapova, Serena and Venus Williams.

The primary to talk of his demise was exactly considered one of his former college students, the German Tommy Haas.

“Thanks in your time, you data, your involvement, your skill, your willingness to share your know-how and provides me the absolute best alternative to meet my desires,” Haas wrote on his Instagram profile a number of hours earlier than the demise was made official.

“You have been a dreamer and an individual of motion, a pioneer of our sport (…). I’ll miss you on the AcademyI’ll miss your tan, your white enamel (…). Thanks once more for every little thing,” added the previous quantity 2 on the planet.

Bollettieri’s daughter posted on social media on November 19 a photograph of her bedridden father explaining that was “passing to the opposite facet”.

“I can not keep in mind one other coach or mentor all through my profession who has had such an affect on my life,” he defined in August in a video broadcast to by means of Twitter the previous champion Russian Maria Sharapova.

However can victory actually justify all of the means? First extolled, the strategies of the American teacher would find yourself being denounced for his or her extreme harshness.

“To succeed in the best stage you need to know how one can undergo troublesome issues. I did what needed to be executed“, Bollettieri defined in varied interviews.

World no 1 of coaches

Former army man born in Pelham, a humble suburb of New York, utilized to tennis the iron self-discipline of the US Marines.

Nonetheless, he didn’t contact his first racket till he was 20 years previous, in 1951, when a cousin, a tennis fan, spent the vacations at his home.

“He prompt I play a sport. The closest tennis courtroom was about half an hour away. For 2 months we went there every single dayBollettieri challenged.

As a member of the paratroopers corps throughout the Korean Struggle, Bollettieri perfected his sport between two army operations for 4 years. Upon his return to the US, he introduced to his father: “Dad, I wish to develop into the world’s No. 1 tennis coach.”

He made a reputation for himself by turning into teacher of a younger Brian Gottfriedwho might be No.3 on the planet in 1977.

In 1978 he based his personal tennis academy. after buying an previous tomato area in Florida.

“To switch a shot (…) you need to hit the identical shot practically thirty thousand instances in coaching. It is the value,” defined Bollettieri, who entered the Corridor of Fame in 2014.

In his academy there was a curfew, no tobacco or tv, diminished contacts with household and the surface world, exacerbated competitors, and in fact hours and hours on the monitorall this from tender ages.

His interval of decline accelerated with the break with Agassi, who thought-about as his non secular son.

This advanced relationship between the 2 Individuals might be explored within the documentary ‘Love Means Zero’, devoted to Bollettieri by filmmaker Jason Kohn.

“When folks noticed my movie, some would say: ‘This man is extremely narcissistic, what a prick.’ And others declared ‘he’s actually a unbelievable mentor, a genius of a coach’“Kohn defined in 2017, summing up the ambivalence that surrounded Bollettieri.

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