Nick Bollettieri

Education

Born in Pelham, New York, to immigrant Italian parents, Nick Bollettieri attended Pelham Memorial High School. He was a charter member of the Beta Lambda Chapter of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity and he graduated in 1949. In 1953, he graduated from Spring Hill College (Mobile, Alabama) with a degree in philosophy. After serving with the United States Army, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant, in 1956 he turned to teaching tennis after dropping out of the University of Miami Law School. Bollettieri's first students included Brian Gottfried. His first formal tennis camp was at Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

Career

Bollettieri was the tennis director at Dorado Beach Hotel in Puerto Rico in the early-mid-1970s when it was a Rockefeller resort. His main assistant coach there was Julio Moros, who followed Bollettieri when he set up his academy in Florida.

Moving to Longboat Key, Florida in 1977, Bollettieri served as an instructor for the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort. In 1978, Bollettieri opened the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy (NBTA) near Bradenton, Florida on 40 acres (162,000 m²) in unincorporated Manatee County on the west coast of Florida, about fifty miles south of Tampa. NBTA was the first major tennis boarding school and it changed the way tennis was taught at the elite junior level.

Seeing a template for other sports, International Management Group (IMG) bought the academy from Bollettieri in 1987, but Bollettieri continues to manage and play a pivotal role in the development of the tennis academy and ancillary programs.

Successful students

The earliest Bollettieri pupils to reach no. 1 were Monica Seles, Jim Courier and Andre Agassi. Later, Marcelo Ríos climbed to the top while associated with Bollettieri. The Williams sisters have a long-standing relationship with Bollettieri, having visited the academy for years, and they often prepare for Grand Slams there. Mary Pierce and Anna Kournikova also trained at the academy. More recent students training with Bollettieri include Maria Sharapova (who moved from Russia at the age of nine) and Jelena Janković (from Belgrade, Serbia, aged 12); both became no. 1.

Honors

On May 18, 2008, Bollettieri was honored at the New York College of Health Professions with an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters for his contribution to the world of sports, fitness, and wellness. Bollettieri also was commencement speaker at the college's commencement ceremony. In 2014 Bollettieri was inducted to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Bollettieri continues with teaching and public speaking engagements worldwide, including a visit to teach students at Tri-State Athletic Club in Evansville, Indiana. He is instruction editor of TENNIS magazine and has written an autobiography, My Aces, My Faults, with Dick Schaap, New York City: HarperCollins (1996). Hardcover: ISBN 0-380-97306-5, ISBN 978-0-380-97306-4. New York: Avon Books (1997). Paperback: ISBN 0-380-78723-7, ISBN 978-0-380-78723-4.

Bollettieri has also written an instructional book, Bollettieri's Tennis Handbook, which covers everything from stroke techniques and strategies to skill development and physical and mental conditioning. The Nick Bollettieri DVD Collection brings Bollettier's teaching to life in a set of 10 DVDs that cover everything from tactics to practice and forehands to drop shots. Bollettieri has also published a very recent autobiography entitled: BOLLETTIERI - Changing the Game, which covers everything from where he was born to the present.

Family

Bollettieri married Cindi Eaton on April 22, 2004. That same year, Nick and Cindi founded the nonprofit fitness camp, Camp Kaizen.

Bollettieri has seven children; five adult children, James, Danielle, Angelique, Nicole and Alexandra, and two adopted sons, Giovanni and Giacomo. He also has two granddaughters, Willa Bay and Addison Skye and two grandsons, Hudson and Jameson. Bollettieri's current wife is Cindi Eaton Bollettieri.