(Paris) Nick Bollettieri, former tennis coach who trained legends of his sport like Andre Agassi or Maria Sharapova, died at the age of 91, announced Monday the IMG Academy, the tennis academy that he had founded in Florida.
“Tennis wouldn’t be where it is today without Nick’s influence,” said Jimmy Arias, now director of tennis at the IMG Academy, who was also an early student of Bollettieri within the Academy he created in 1978.
The tennis advocated by former soldier Nick Bollettieri was based on a very intense physique and emulation among its players. He has thus trained or accompanied ten future world N.1s, including Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova, Venus and Serena Williams.
The first to comment on his death was, precisely, one of his former students, the German Tommy Haas.
“Thank you for your time, your knowledge, your involvement, your expertise, your willingness to share your know-how, your personal involvement in guiding me and giving me the best possible chance of achieving my dreams,” Haas wrote on his Instagram account several hours before the death of the coach not be formalized.
“You were a dreamer and a doer, a pioneer in our sport, a unique character. I will miss you at the Academy, in our tennis discussions, I will miss your tan, your white teeth and your fat, I will not see you doing tai chi again, I will miss our golf games, seeing you try i will miss cheating […] and hearing you develop all your projects, even at 91, will miss me. Thank you again for everything, ”adds the man who was world No.2 at the peak of his career.
Quickly followed the tribute of the German Sabine Lisicki, ex-12e world.
“THANK YOU Nick. You have given so many children a place to work towards their dreams. You supported them with your knowledge and your assurance that anything is possible. I was lucky to be one of those children. You shaped the game of tennis,” she wrote on Twitter.
Bollettieri’s daughter posted a photo of her bedridden father on November 19 on social media, explaining that he was “going to the other side”.
PHOTO FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF ANGELIQUE ANNE BOLLETTIERI