Nick Bollettieri

The little girl from Serbia who loved cartoons was off to Disney World.

She added the under 12s trophy to her growing collection, and it's here that she and her father first spoke to tennis coach Nick Bollettieri.

Nick's academy was the most prestigious tennis school in the world, and he would go on to coach 10 players that achieved world number one status.

If Monica wanted to play more tennis, this is where she needed to be.

That was what I needed.

Some players I guess can go and, you know, live in Nick Bollettieri's and, you know, become just totally into tennis.

That's not my approach.

I'd like to give a different option for kids in this area.

He started to play good.

Uh, he was top 20, and we trained, uh, in, uh, IMG Academy in Bollettieri, like, for a few days, uh, with him.

I think it was, uh, between Indian Wells and Miami, if I'm right.

Um, or maybe it was in summer.

Um, but you know, that was really all there was, and then I got super lucky.

My first break came, I was playing the Junior Orange Bowl when I was 10 years old, and, um, actually I might've been, actually might've been 9 at the time, and, um, Nick Bollettieri saw me playing, and he approached my mom and, and said, you know, "I'd love to offer a full scholarship to your son to come to the academy." And, um, that was a bit strange because even at a young age, I, I really thought, like, my only chance to make it in tennis, to make it on the global stage, was to get out of The Bahamas, just 'cause I knew we were, we were limited, right? We didn't have a ton of players, not a ton of resources, and, um, so I was really adamant.

I was really gung-ho to go to Bollettieri's at 10 years old, and my parents were a little bit hesitant, right?

Yeah.

How was this experience?

Yeah, I mean, it was, it was an interesting time because it was almost like a military school.

Um, most people don't know Nick Bollettieri's background, but he was a paratrooper, so he would jump out of planes.

Okay.

Yes, exactly.

And, and so it was, it was a great conduit and, uh, vehicle to, to pay for education and, and, and I, I worked at, every summer through college, I, I coached at Bollettieri's Tennis Academy, which is now IMG.

Oh, wow.

Mm-hmm.