Our BLOG
Chicken
One of the best tennis players in the 90s was Monica Seles. Monica grew up in Yugoslavia and then went to the Nick Bollettieri tennis Academy in Florida. Her dad ... Read more
US Open and the remainder of the year for the pros…
Despite losing in an early round of the Australian Open this year to Emma Raducanu, Amanda Anisimova showed an incredible ability for ball striking and willingness to continue going for ... Read more
As we make a full transition into outdoor tennis, I look back at my early years in New England. Back then, I set a goal for myself and the programs ... Read more
Who is next?
After watching the last home match of the season for the Harvard men’s team, Coach Ricardo and I were invited for a small dinner celebration for the three seniors in ... Read more
Stepping Stones
This upcoming Sunday, Coach Ricardo and I are heading down to Harvard University to watch one of our long-time alumni, Daniel Milavsky compete in his last home match representing the ... Read more
Let’s keep things simple
I have been wanting to outline a few important TIPS for competition that might seem simple and sometimes obvious, but that unfortunately the nerves and anxiety of junior competition bring ... Read more
Take the Beatings…
Dear Tennis Academy Family, Despite the fact that my dad’s side of the family had always been involved with tennis (his parents’ house was literally across the street from the ... Read more
Stories…
For some reason, I have always enjoyed paying close attention to the different patterns in which players train, and especially to the little things that they do during their week-to-week ... Read more
The Sidelines
Coach Ricardo and I had an awesome opportunity to travel to the Madrid Open this year for a few days of incredible tennis matches and practices from the very best ... Read more
Struggle… a blessing….
Struggle is a word that always comes to mind when I reflect on my years as a junior player. As a late starter in the tournament scene, the insecurities that ... Read more
A change in the approach, and a change of outcomes…
Because I was lucky enough to do my share of travelling in the 90s in the professional tour, I was often a witness of the following. One would walk into ... Read more
College players
Dear Academy Family, One important piece of our program (and one of our favorite ones) is the open-door policy that we have with our former students who are now participating ... Read more
Rafa
My first memory of Rafa is from 2002 while attending the ITF junior event that happens right before Wimbledon in London (I was coaching the IMG players who were competing ... Read more
Year one flew by…
This past weekend was exactly a year since the time that I decided to take a step into the professionally unknown world of independence after having worked for two incredible ... Read more
HOW and not WHAT
As we navigate the process of our junior players in their pursuit to maximize their potential and reach high level goals, we find ourselves looking for what to do to ... Read more
Problems
As part of the USTA National Faculty coaching program, I had t the opportunity to participate as one of the coaches of a National Camp last weekend at the training ... Read more
It Takes What It Takes
The story goes that when the last crew of GREAT men American players was active (Sampras, Chang, Agassi, and Courier), a person would walk into the player lounge area of ... Read more
Maximizing our potential….
It only takes a few minutes watching Rafael Nadal in person to realize what incredible natural ability he was “born” with. Standing at a big and strong 6’2” of height ... Read more
Nerves vs Fear…
The tournament system in the US has to be used as a positive tool for our youngsters to develop throughout the difficult junior years. The fact that we have opportunities ... Read more
Doubles weekends!
As a junior player, I was not a doubles’ specialist because there was not such a thing. Doubles were a part of the national and international events that I competed ... Read more
Tournament tips…
I had a nice conversation with a family from the Netherlands who is considering moving to the Boston area next year, and they wanted to find out more about what ... Read more
Cheering for him!!
During the mid 1990s, one of the touring professional players who would stop by and do short training blocks at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy was an American guy named ... Read more
New Year
Back in 2005, two of the most promising 18-year-olds in the world had to face each other in the first round of the US Open main draw. The names are ... Read more
Every Ball!!!!
At the beginning of August of this year, my wife told me to leave a particular Friday evening open at the end of the month because she had gotten tickets ... Read more
Thanksgiving
In Colombia, we don’t have a holiday celebration like Thanksgiving. For me growing up, it was simply something that we saw in all the TV shows, but I actually had ... Read more
Let the racket do the talking (at least most of it)
When the USTA had its national training center in Boca Raton (Before they moved to Orlando), they had a series of banners around the courts with famous sayings from former ... Read more
It has always been about the people
Dear Tennis Academy Family, Yesterday, we said goodbye to our dear Coach Fanni. Fanni and her husband (Omar) have decided to move to California because he has signed a fulltime ... Read more
Focusing on Progress
My first attempt to become a competitive junior player and follow my father’s steps didn’t go well at all. As a ten-year-old, I played in 5 or 6 tournaments and ... Read more
Hard Work and Attention to Detail
Juan Carlos Ferrero (Former Number one player in the world and French Open champion) coached Alexander Zverev for seven months in 20217. During the time that they spent together, Zverev ... Read more