He had more wives than Henry VIII and presided over his kingdom with barely less authority. But for Nick Bollettieri, the trailblazing coach and former US army lieutenant who has died aged 91, the court was of the sporting rather than the royal variety – and his subjects were world No 1 tennis players.
Bollettieri, a larger-than-life character who rejected a career in law to pioneer the residential academy model that would later become a staple of the tennis landscape, barely even knew how to hold a racket when he first started teaching in a public park in Miami in 1957.
Yet he went on to work with a plethora of household names, including 10 top-ranked players: Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Martina Hingis, Jelena Jankovic, Marcelo Rios, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova and Serena and Venus Williams.
“I must be doing something right,” Bollettieri quipped.
And it was hard to argue – not least because of the difficulty of getting a word in edgeways in the permatanned presence of the fast-talking, flamboyant New Yorker.
Effective as they were, however, Bollettieri’s drill-sergeant methods, based on relentless repetition and strict discipline, were not always popular among his clientele. Agassi famously had a visceral hatred of life at the academy Bollettieri established in Bradenton, Florida in 1978, devising ever more outlandish acts of rebellion in an effort to secure his expulsion. Sharapova branded it a “tennis prison”, while Seles has written of a “military culture” that provided “a crash course in tennis as a life instead of tennis as a game”.
None of that stopped the sports management company IMG from stepping in to buy out the academy in 1987, with bankruptcy looming – although only on the proviso that Bollettieri stayed on as president. Under IMG, Bollettieri’s model was expanded to include other sports, but as the facility evolved, its founding father remained a notable constant.
Technique was always secondary to Bollettieri’s innate ability to get under the bonnet of a player. He may not have understood everything about the minutiae of stroke production, certainly in the early years, but what he did understand was people and how to motivate them.
The enduring bonds Bollettieri created within the game are reflected in the host of affectionate tributes that followed news of his passing.
“Thank you for your time, knowledge, commitment, expertise, the willingness to share your skill, your personal interest in mentoring me and giving me the best opportunity to follow my dreams,” Tommy Haas, the German former world No 2, wrote on social media.
“You were a dreamer and a doer, and a pioneer in our sport, truly one of a kind.”
Agassi, whose first grand slam victory at Wimbledon in 1992 was described by Bollettieri as “a fulfilment that I can’t even describe”, likewise hailed his former mentor’s ability to bridge the gap between ambition and achievement.
“Our dear friend, Nick Bollettieri, graduated from us last night,” wrote Agassi on Monday. “He gave so many a chance to live their dream. He showed us all how life can be lived to the fullest… Thank you, Nick.”
Sabine Lisicki, another Bradenton graduate, said Bollettieri had “shaped the game of tennis”.
“You have given so many children a place to work for their dream,” said Lisicki, the 2013 Wimbledon finalist. “Supporting them with your knowledge and the belief that anything is possible. I was fortunate to be one of them.”
The Australian coach Darren Cahill hailed the passing of “a pioneer, a visionary, a believer and a leader”, while Billie Jean King said the sport had lost “one of its most passionate coaches and advocates”.
“Nick was always positive and was able to get the best out of everyone fortunate enough to work with him,” said King.
The 18-time grand slam champions Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova paid tribute to Bollettieri’s warmth and transformative influence on modern coaching.
“Aside from being the greatest coach ever, you were so kind to me, my parents, and my siblings,” wrote Evert. “That meant more to me than anything, you had a big heart and a zest for living.”
Navratilova likewise hailed “an amazing coach”.
“[You] transformed how tennis is taught and most of all, you were a very kind human being – it was an honor to have known you,” wrote Navratilova.
Nicholas James Bollettieri, the son of Italian immigrant parents Mary and James, was born in the New York suburb of Pelham on 31 January 1931. He graduated from Pelham Memorial High School in 1949, before earning a degree in philosophy at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama.
Bollettieri then undertook a military training programme at Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he met Phyllis Johnson, the first of his eight wives, and went on to serve as a paratrooper.
It was after dropping out of law school in 1957 that his relationship with tennis began in earnest. In 2014, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, one of few coaches to receive that honour.
Bollettieri’s passion for a sport that he never played professionally was underpinned by a legendary work ethic that was evident until his final days, when he was still frequently to be found on the IMG Academy campus, “coaching and mentoring young student athletes and staff with the same passion and enthusiasm as he did in his 20s,” according to Tim Pernetti, the facility’s president.
When asked why he continued to work so hard, Bollettieri would reply in typically candid fashion that he needed the money to keep up with his alimony payments. Those who worked with him will be grateful he did.