Nick Bollettieri, coach to many tennis stars, dead at age 91 | CBC Sports

Nick Bollettieri, the Hall 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 dwelling in Florida after a sequence of well being points, his supervisor, Steve Shulla, stated in a phone interview with The Associated Press on Monday.

Known 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 taking part in professionally — Bollettieri helped no fewer than 10 gamers who went on to be No. 1 on the earth rankings. That group contains sisters Serena and Venus Williams, Jim Courier, Maria Sharapova, Agassi and Seles.

Bolletieri additionally had a hand within the success of Canadian, Carling Bassett who was amoung a few of his first pupils.

He remained lively into his 80s, touring the world to drop in on the highest tournaments and, in 2014, turned solely the fourth coach to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. That was the identical 12 months one other one among his proteges, Kei Nishikori, reached the ultimate of the U.S. Open.

“I forged my own path, which others found to be unorthodox and downright crazy,” Bollettieri stated in his induction speech on the corridor in Newport, Rhode Island. “Yes, I am crazy. But it takes crazy people to do things that other people say cannot be done.”

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 gives 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 guide, by no means thoughts that he majored in philosophy in school and even gave regulation college a attempt, albeit for lower than a 12 months.

He additionally was an adept self-promoter — one who would publish a pair of autobiographies — irrespective of that detractors dismissed him as a hustler and huckster. The fact 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 at present.

Bollettieri’s first scholar to achieve No. 1 was Boris Becker in 1991. Then got here others, similar to Martina Hingis, Marcelo Rios and Jelena Jankovic.

Just as rewarding, Bollettieri stated, had been the successes of much less achieved gamers.

Bollettieri’s devotion to his gamers got here at a value. For a lot of his profession, he was on the highway 9 months out of yearly, and he cited his journey schedule as one purpose he was married eight occasions.

Survivors embrace his spouse, Cindi, seven kids and 4 grandchildren, in accordance with Shulla, who stated 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 College in Mobile, Alabama, and was a paratrooper within the Army earlier than enrolling in regulation college on the University of Miami.

For spending cash, Bollettieri started educating tennis for $1.50 an hour, in accordance with the Hall of Fame. More than 60 years later, his price was $900.

After just a few months, he dropped out of regulation college to focus on teaching. At first, he conceded, data of tennis approach wasn’t his forte.

“I didn’t know much about teaching the game,” he stated. “The gift God gave me was the ability to read people.”

Bollettieri gained reward for his motivational abilities, yelling when he deemed it needed. He had a watch for expertise and was a visionary relating to 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 complicated in what had been a tomato area.

Running a business wasn’t Bollettieri’s robust go well with, and he offered the academy to IMG however continued to work there, stressing a tactical strategy that reworked tennis. He urged gamers to benefit from trendy racket expertise, 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 dreams,” Bollettieri confessed with a smile, “I say, `Nick, you’re darn good.”‘