Nick Bollettieri - Restless into old age
The death of Nick Bolletieri has deeply affected tennis. What remains is a life's work that is second to none.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Dec 07, 2022, 10:56 am
He got up at four in the morning for most years of his life. At five o'clock you could already see him sweating on the weights in one of the fitness rooms of his tennis academy. And by six o'clock at the latest, even in his early eighties, he was already on the tennis court and hitting the first balls with the students. Nick Bollettieri couldn't help it, it was in the blood of the man who was once the most successful, best-known and also most shrewd coach in the world: "When I sit still, I get restless and nervous. I always have to do something.”
It was only when illnesses began to plague him in old age that things became calmer and quieter for the son of a Neapolitan master butcher. He only followed the top competitions from afar, from his sickbed. A few weeks ago his death was announced - wrongly - he took it with humor and said the obituaries would have to "wait a bit." But now Nicholas James Bollettieri has died at the age of 91, one of the most memorable most entertaining, yet also most controversial and polarizing figures in his sport.
What a life lies behind the dazzling trainer, who once came to tennis because he could not finish his law studies. His training facility in Bradenton, founded in 1978, covering more than 420,000 square meters, became the port of call for the greatest talents on the planet - and the springboard for careers such as those of Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova or even Tommy Haas and Sabine Lisicki. Bollettieri was the central figure of this grinder empire, unmistakable in his appearance: a ruthlessly good self-seller and marketer who preferred to be photographed and filmed, shirtless and bronze-toned skin giving the instructions. What could not be missing: the fully mirrored sunglasses, even on rainy days. He also wore them when he was temporarily responsible for Boris Becker's affairs - first himself, then as a conductor from the background, who placed coaches from his academy such as Mike dePalmer (also deceased) at the side of the German.
Agassi left Bollettieri in anger
Bollettieri always had ardent supporters among his students, but also superstars who left him in anger. This included, painfully for the over-coach, his foster child Agassi, who later judged that the time in Bollettieri's camp felt "like in a prison camp." John McEnroe described him as a "charlatan" who knew nothing about tennis. Others, like Maria Sharapova, said Bollettieri was the key inspiration in her career, the driving force behind her attempt to rise to the top of the world: "He never faltered in his belief in me, he was an eternal source of strength." Tommy Haas, who with 12 years old when he came to the tennis school of the child of Italian emigrants, said Bollettieri had given him the best opportunity to "follow my dreams."
Whatever was said and written about Bollettieri, his track record spoke for itself: more than ten number one players went through his tough drill site, Williams sisters Venus and Serena were also guests of the "man with the strange golden one" at a young age skin” (New York Post). In the early and mid-90s, at the peak of his creative power, there were sometimes three dozen current and former protégés in Grand Slam main fields. Only a little eternity later, in 2014, was he inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame, the hall of fame of his sport. At the ceremony, he was overcome with emotion, saying that now he knows what it feels like to "reach Mount Everest." All the more so because he, the autodidact, always considered himself a tolerated outsider among many tennis scholars and established figures strength felt. "In the end I didn't believe that I would be given this honor," said Bollettieri.
He continued restlessly as a former paratrooper and army lieutenant, and together with his eighth wife Cindi also took care of the upbringing of his adopted sons Giovanni and Giacomo. However, he preferred not to watch them play tennis, but rather play football.