After the death of legendary tennis coach Nick Bollettieri last week, it seemed appropriate to select a book or media title that examined his life. There were a lot of candidates to choose from. I own all three books co-authored by Bollettieri. There is also reportedly an authorized biography in the works by journalist David R. Legge. Ultimately I settled on a documentary about Bollettieri that was produced and released by Showtime in 2017. Love Means Zero examines his life through his relationships with some of the biggest stars that emerged from his tennis academy.
Last Monday I shared a family story about Bollettieri that reflects the way I choose to remember him. Love Means Zero is a much grittier look at some of the more controversial aspects of his life and relationships. The producers frequently broke the “fourth wall” by including some of the prompts and dialogue from Bollettieri’s filmed interviews for this documentary. The reasons behind some of the things that Bollettieri did in his life were elusive, even to himself.
Love Means Zero is also an examination of the Tennis Academy concept that was pioneered by Bollettieri. He recruited the most talented junior players by awarding them scholarships. Those players attracted other paying customers who made the business work. Bollettieri relentlessly promoted his top stars and rose to prominence along with them. Former Bollettieri Academy coach Fritz Nau perhaps summed it up best. “Nick cared about his players and he wanted them to be great… but I think he wanted to be great with them.”
Jim Courier was one of the prominent players to fall out of Bollettieri’s orbit. Courier applies a mature perspective honed by years of work as a tennis commentator and analyst. He is one of many people who describe the father-figure relationship that Bollettieri had with his players. The pain he described when the relationship fell apart is palpable.
Love Means Zero is filled with first-person accounts of players who were in Bollettieri’s elite inner circle and their divergent outcomes and experiences. It is tough to build a father-figure relationship with tennis players only to discard them over lack of on-court performance. The same can be said about expecting financial remunerations after the players are successful.
Of all unlikely people, Boris Becker made some of the more insightful observations about Bollettieri. Through their brief time working together, Becker realized that he wasn’t a tennis coach, but rather more of a life coach. The number of divorces and failed relationships in Bollettieri’s wake precludes him from being a good choice as a comprehensive life coach. Becker did not make that distinction, which in retrospect may explain some of his own recent issues.
Of all the books and media centered on Bollettieri, Love Means Zero is perhaps the most credible narration of a story that has wildly divergent perspectives. Bollettieri describes himself as a person who doesn’t look back. At the same time, he acknowledges that he made mistakes and did things wrong along the way.
Love Means Zero ultimately examines whether the ends justify the means. Bollettieri reached the pinnacle of tennis coaching. His rise to fame is inseparable from the emergence of some of the prominent players developed by his academy. The question of whether he could have reached the top of the mountain without doing things that were wrong along the way is left unresolved.
 | Love Means Zero (Documentary) Showtime |
A compelling tennis documentary although I wish it had been done years earlier when, perhaps, Nick was more capable of remembering and articulating his experiences with the players. The interviews with Nick can be a bit uncomfortable for both the audience and Nick as they come across as a mix of Nick excercising his rights under the fifth amendment and the interviewer taking advantage of the mental state of his subject.
That said, I found the Jim Courier interview provided fascinating insight into what it was like being a child tennis prodigy at Nick academy, including what Courier first endured physically to earn Nick’s favor and later endured emotionally when he learned Nick’s favor was purely transactional.