Nick Bollettieri, the great tennis master has died. He launched Agassi, Becker, Sharapova and Serena Williams

Nick Bollettieri is dead. The very popular master who with his academy has launched some of the greatest champions of the last thirty years of world tennis he was 91 years old. He had coached among others andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Serena Williams, Monica Seles And Maria Sharapova. His death was also confirmed on social networks by Tommy Haas. His condition had already been critical for some time.

Who is Nick Bollettieri: Career, Academy and Trained Tennis Players

The son of Italian immigrants to the United States, Bollettieri was born in 1931 in Pelham, New York State. He was the pioneer of the great tennis coaches, without ever being an elite player. Before opening his legendary academy – the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, still active as Img Academy – he had worked in various structures, beginning his career as director of tennis activities at the Dorado Beach hotel in Puerto Rico in the early 70s, a structure owned by the Rockefellers. In 1978 the Bollettieri boom, with the foundation of his academy, a structure that is spread over more than 600 hectares and which today has more than 50 tennis courts, both fast and clay. Some of the strongest players of all time have passed through Florida, with 12 number one in the world: Jim Courier, André Agassi, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Marcelo Rios, the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Jelena Jankovic. There were also many Italians who trained with him: from Raffaella Reggi to Sara Errani.