INSIDE AT 86, THE GODFATHER OF TENNIS IS STILL ON A STAR TREK
At 86, star-finder Bollettieri has travelled 200,000 miles already this year as he tries to discover the next big thing
Andy has moved back a little further from the baseline. He has to come from a long way back at times
HE is a frenetic phenomenon, an eight-time husband, a multi-millionaire, a selftaught tennis guru who produced world No1s as if by conveyor belt. But he is more. Nick Bollettieri has the ability to carry his life around in a bag and a determination to sell its lessons to the rest of us.
Three years ago, dressed as usual in shorts and bright shirt, he entered the media room at Wimbledon with his trademark sally aimed at everyone in the room who was not Nick Bollettieri. ‘It’s a great day, baby,’ he chirruped.
He was greeted with a warmth that owes nothing to his celebrity. There are two truths: people like Nick and Nick likes hustle.
The bag he carried was large enough to carry one of his thrusting tennis juniors but contained copies of his autobiography.
‘It’s a great read, baby,’ he said, brushing aside the silly notion that the quality of the biography may not best be apprised by its author. The book was, indeed, a great read.
It still is. Nick Bollettieri was a great talker. He still is. At 86, his voice surges down the line from Florida with the ebullience of a puppy let off the leash.
‘In September, I’ll have a son in his sixties, a daughter in her fifties, a daughter in her forties, a daughter in her thirties, a daughter in the 20s, a son in his teens and a son in the ten and under category,’ he says, conjuring up the image of some Biblical character.
But Bollettieri left the wilderness a long time ago. His history is fascinating.
Briefly, he was born near New York in 1931, studied in Alabama, where he played for the college tennis team, and then became a paratrooper. He subsequently studied law at the University of Miami, financing his studies by coaching tennis.
The tennis court proved more seductive than the criminal or civil courts, though.
He became head tennis professional at the Dorado Beach Resort in Puerto Rico. In 1978, he bought a tennis club in Florida. Two years later his tennis academy was built.
He has helped produce 10 world No 1s: Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Martina Hingis, Jelena Jankovic, Marcelo Rios, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova and Serena and Venus Williams. IMG bought the academy in 1987 but Nick is still there.
So much for the past. Bollettieri is more interested in the present and the future.
He will not be at Wimbledon this year for the first time in 40 years.
The shift in the tennis year that has pushed the tournament back in the calendar means events in SW19 coincide with a regular family occasion.
He will watch the Championships from afar but with interest.
Every tournament, every day, every moment holds a fascination for Bollettieri.
He barks out opinions on tennis, personalities, personal development and the philosophy of life with the relentless staccato of a machine-gun.
He first addresses Andy Murray. Bollettieri is friendly with the Murray camp, particularly Judy, the mother of the defending Wimbledon champion. He respects and admires what the 30-year-old Scot has achieved and is not surprised that this season has so far been disappointing.
‘He has had the shingles and that takes a heavy toll on you,’ says Bollettieri.
‘You have to be in great shape to play this sport, especially now.
‘In terms of how he is playing, he has moved back a little further from the baseline. That is the biggest thing I see. The big change he made before was to come in close, particularly on return of serve. But I think he has given the opponents time now by giving up that space and he has to come from a long way back at times. Maybe he and Ivan (Lendl) will sort that before Monday.
‘They will be working on something. But what?
‘It is hard to read Lendl. He would be a perfect poker player.’
He believes the tournament on the men and women’s side is wide open. ‘You would be nuts to have a bet,’ he says. Roger Federer, who has not won the title since 2012 and who is 35, probably goes in as favourite after winning in Halle.
But there are doubts over Novak Djokovic, who has been gaudily inconsistent this season, Murray, who lost in the first round of Queen’s and is nursing injuries, and Rafael Nadal, who remains the King of Clay but who now seems both uncomfortable and vulnerable on grass.
‘On a given day anybody can lose, particularly on grass,’ says Bollettieri. ‘It’s tough for Murray, too, being the home favourite and he also has the reality that the penalty of being the best in the world is that everybody is out to get you. You have to be precise in every area of your play because your opponent can be free as he has nothing to lose.’
Bollettieri had a close relationship with Agassi, the eighttime major winner who, at 47, has taken on his first coaching job, mentoring Djokovic.
‘Nothing surprises me anymore,’ says Bollettieri of his reaction to the union of two of the best players ever to hold a racket.
‘And nothing is ever a surprise with Andre Agassi. When he played, everyone was energised by the way he played, his clothes, his actions, his hair. But I think Agassi is the perfect choice. Djokovic is in a dip and Andre has the experience of that. He fell but he got back up.
‘Andre is not going to tinker with ground strokes or technique. He brings the experience of being in those situations that Djokovic is in right now. That is priceless.
‘Right now, it is all psychological and Andre is a substantial character.
‘He has things in his background that can be an asset to others.’
Bollettieri, as befits a character who has given more than 60 years to developing players, has a keen eye on the younger players who are attempting to dethrone the Big Four. One has to go back to 2002, and Lleyton Hewitt, to find a Wimbledon gentlemen’s title winner who is not called Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray.
‘I like (Alexander) Zverev but there are six or seven really good youngsters,’ he says.
‘It is a different ball game now. In the 80s, 90s, the early noughties the top seeds had two rounds of freebies, but not today.’
If anyone can fight their way back to the top, it is Maria. She is as strong mentally as ever
Asked if this was particularly the case on grass, he replies: ‘It sure is. A guy with a big serve can rattle up 20 or 30 aces. If you are facing that, then you have a problem no matter who you are.’
Bollettieri has a close relationship with both Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, working with both these major winners. Williams will not be at Wimbledon as she is pregnant and Sharapova, who has served her drugs ban, is injured.
Does Bollettieri believe Sharapova can come back to the top of the game? ‘Let me say this.
About two months ago, Sven Groeneveld was at the academy with Maria and her father Yuri. Sven is about as good a coach as you will find in this world and Maria was striking the ball magnificently.
‘If anybody can do it, then it is Maria. She is as strong mentally as ever, but the body must hold up.’
The absence of both leaves Bollettieri unable to come to a definitive conclusion about the destination of the women’s crown.
‘There are question marks everywhere and I don’t have the answers, baby. I am going to sit in front of the TV and watch with interest,’ he explains. The idea of a sedentary Bollettieri is mildly disconcerting.
He rises at 5.30am and spends the day in a whirlwind of activity that is so unrelenting it should be charted by the Weather Channel.
‘I’ve been on the road for 200,000 miles this year,’ he says. ‘All that travel gives you time to think and I want to write a book perhaps called 60 years of Nick’s Tips.
‘Nothing about hip or shoulder rotation, or serving at a certain miles per hour, but little things about how to prepare matches, how the game has changed, what the role of a coach should be.
‘Things I have learned that could be helpful to everybody.’
So what has kept him going at he ripe old age of 86? ‘Doing things that people said could not be done. Helping people to have a real opportunity in life,’ he says. And the future? ‘Never use the word retire. We just keep going, baby. When you go to sleep at night, tell yourself you did what you could do today and you will do what you can do tomorrow,’ he says.