Andre Agassi reportedly slams Suncoast tennis guru Nick Bollettieri in his new memoir, Open
November 24th, 2009 by Cooper Levey-Baker in News, Sarasota-Manatee, Sports
I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy of Andre Agassi’s hot new memoir, but, according to The New York Times Sunday Book Review, Agassi spends considerable page space expressing how he grew to hate the sport he conquered: “Agassi’s announced theme is that the game he mastered was a prison he spent some 30 years trying to escape,” writes reviewer Sam Tanenhaus. And one of the “cells” Agassi felt trapped in was none other than Nick Bollettieri’s famous Bradenton tennis academy, known now as IMG Academies.
Here is how Tanenhaus sums up the Florida portions of Agassi’s book:
[His childhood training] was nurturing, at least compared with his next incarceration, at the Florida tennis academy, or “glorified prison camp,” operated by Nick Bollettieri, a sun-baked entrepreneur paid thousands of dollars by parents who shipped their children off for months, even years, of incessant drilling, lectures on motivational psychology and nights spent in barracks-like dorms. “The constant pressure, the cutthroat competition, the total lack of adult supervision — it slowly turns us into animals,” Agassi writes. This happened at a time when tennis promoters were eager to feed the public’s infatuation with under-age champions like Bjorn Borg and Chris Evert, not to mention half-forgotten casualties like Jimmy Arias and Andrea Jaeger — a phenomenon that recalls the unhealthy national “love affair” almost a century ago with screen virgin-goddesses like Mary Pickford and the Gish sisters. Agassi rebelled by drinking, brawling, body piercing and sporting “one pinky nail that’s two inches long and painted fire-engine red.”
November 24th, 2009 at 10:28 am
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November 28th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
It’s a real shame that Andre is now bad-mouthing Nick. I spent many visits to the academy and watched Andre train. Instead of blaming Nick he should kiss his ass on Broadway and thank his lucky stars that Nick gave him the only environment in the world to train with the best, not to mention the countless hours of Nicks time coaching him and the competition that helped develop Andre into a champion.
We really need to ask ourselves why there are so few Americans that are in the top 20 in the world today. The answer is simple, the kids growing up today are not committed and training to be the very best that they can be and aren’t willing to go the extra mile it takes in a grueling environment, to become a champion.
Nick provides a lot of kids that environment to succeed and believe me, it’s no party. But in the end, the kid has to have the desire, commitment and work ethic, and talent to make it.
Andre, grow up – you’re too old to be a cry baby!
November 29th, 2009 at 3:06 am
He didn’t feel the need to badmouth anyone. He’s just telling his life story like it is. It’s not surprising to me that most people can’t understand his intentions. What he did with his book was something most people don’t have the courage or humility to do. He also had some nice things to say about Nick, by the way. He badmouths pretty much everyone in some way, but also has nice things to say about almost everyone. As such, he’s portraying people as humans. Flawed human beings, not “legends,” not “greats.”
December 11th, 2009 at 11:30 am
lol – Bollettieri coached him for free! And this guy complains about everyhting – what a victim – poor guy.
Lots of kids would kill for the opportunity he got.