Bollettieri bothered by U.S. flop 'Down Under':: HeraldTribune.com ~~~
Nick is never at a loss for words, and it would be difficult to write a column about him without mentioning once again how much better U.S. tennis was back in the heydey of his academy. Here's the latest update on that:
"To me, you have to come up with a program the way the academy was," Bollettieri said Tuesday. "We had them at a young age and never ran out of ammunition. We should be concentrating on players who are 11, 12, 13 and 14 years of age."
There was a time when the best young Americans flocked to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Agassi, Jim Courier, Aaron Krickstein and even Pete Sampras trained there at the same time. Pierce and, later, the Williams sisters trained there.
The academy, even back then, wasn't exclusively all-American. Monica Seles was a member of the academy. And, later, Tommy Haas.
What they all had in common is that they trained there without paying. In 1987 there were 27 players with connections to Bollettieri in the main draw of the Australian Open. And all of them were on scholarship.
Bollettieri believes those who handle tennis in the U.S. should make certain that players have the best opportunity to work on their game without worrying about how to pay for the instruction.
I don't get this. Isn't there still an academy with Nick's name on it? What is stopping him from going back to the way it was? Is this an admission that selling out to IMG was a mistake? I know the Academy still offers full scholarships and they have scores of talented young players training there. Granted the percentage of Americans may be smaller than it used to be, but welcome to the 21st century of tennis, the one where Croatia wins the Davis Cup and the top players in the game come from Switzerland and Belgium.
And I know that Bollettieri is revered in the Sarasota/Bradenton area (they've just named a street after him), but this strikes me as a bit much:
The year's first Grand Slam tournament ended prematurely for the U.S. without any American-born player -- male or female -- reaching the semifinals.
Nick Bollettieri says that shouldn't happen. And wouldn't if he were running American tennis.
Oh really? Would anyone like to make a bet on that?