10 players to train under Nick Bollettieri, the greatest tennis coach

Seen as a pioneer of the sport, the USA legend has overseen the careers of some of the bests ever.

Nick Bollettieri is regarded as one of the greatest coaches the USA has ever produced in tennis. He died on 4th December 2022 aged 91. Nick Bollettieri has trained more than 20 players most of whom have gone on to win multiple Grand Slams and also achieved the World No. 1 status. He pioneered the concept of tennis boarding school which has brought in good results as well. In this article let us discuss the top 10 athletes Nick has trained in his coaching career. 

Serena Williams

Serena Williams to date has been the world number for a record 319 weeks who turned professional in 1995. Since then Serena has gone on to win 23 grand slams and an overall 73 career titles. She went on to break Steffi Graf's record of the most number of grand slam wins in the Open Era. Both the Williams sisters Serena and Venus would often go to Nick Bollettieri's academy before a grand slam.

Venus Williams

The senior Williams turned pro aged 14 in the year 1994 and has been actively participating for more than two decades. Venus has won a total of seven grand slams ( 5 - Wimbledon, 2- US Open). She also went on to achieve the World No. 1 rankings in both the singles and doubles sections. Venus Williams won four gold medals and one silver medal at the Olympics.

Boris Becker

Boris Becker is one of the greatest to have played tennis representing Germany. The German won his first grand slam at the age of 17. One of his best wins was beating the then-world number 1, Ivan Lendl, to retain the Wimbledon Championships. After his playing career, he trained Novak Djokovic for three years.

Andre Agassi

Andre Agassi was the first man to win all four singles majors on three different surfaces (clay, grass, and hard).  The American was also the former World No. 1 and has won eight grand slams. Nick Bollettieri trained Andre Agassi for ten long years from 1983 to 1993 the time period when one of the American players ever to grace the sport started to win titles. Agassi after his playing stint went on to coach Noval Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov.

Martina Hingis

Martina Hingis was the first Swiss player to win a major title and attain the World No. 1 ranking. In the initial part of her career, Hingis focussed on the singles section and then gradually shifted to doubles. She has partnered with Indian great Sania Mirza and both went on to win multiple titles and also attain the World No. 1 mark in doubles. Martina Hingis is one of the few athletes to be successful in both the singles and doubles sections.

Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova was one of the first Russian players to be trained by Nick Bollettieri. She won her first grand slam at the age of 18. Sharapova started playing tennis at the age of six at Martina Navratilova tennis academy but Navratilova later recommended Sharapova to train under Nick Bollettieri at the IMG Academy in Florida.

Kei Nishikori

Kei Nishikori is the first Japanese to reach the top five in the ATP singles rankings in the Open Era and second overall after Jiro Sato. Apart from this, he was the first Asian to qualify for the ATP World Tour finals in the singles category in 2014. In 2016 Kei Nishikori won the bronze medal and was the first to win a medal in tennis after 96 years.

Jim Courier

Jim Courier is the former World No. 1 in the singles category and was the youngest to reach the finals of all the grand slam events. He actively took part in the doubles category as well but could not achieve as major success as in the singles. Jim Couriers’s first coach was Nick Bollettieri.

Max Mirnyi

Max Mirnyi was one of the greatest from Belarus who went on to achieve the World No. 1 status in the doubles category. He started his career with the singles but majorly found success after shifting to the doubles section. His highest ranking in singles was 18 but won one career title. Max Mirnyi went on to win a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics partnering with Victoria Azarenka.

Jelena Jankovic

Jelena Jankovic from Serbia started her junior career on a good note winning the junior Australian Open. After being trained by her elder brother she later went on to train under the great Nick Bollettieri at a young age. Jelena was ranked World No. 1 for 17 long weeks until she was overtaken by Serena Williams. She became the first female to win a grand slam title partnering Jamie Murray in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon.