The young man discovered dead in a hotel room in Porto on Monday has been identified as a 17year-old dual national Russian/ Spanish tennis player, taking part in international tournaments in Portugal with a group of around 200 other players. PJ judicial police have said there are no indications, at this point, that the death involved any kind of crime. The body has been taken to Porto’s Institute of Legal Medicine for autopsy in order to establish cause of death. Althea Gibson was born 8/25/1927 in Silver, South Carolina. She died 9/28/2003 at the age of 76 in East Orange, New Jersey from respiratory failure. Gibson was the first African American to win Wimbledon and the first black woman to play in what became the U.S. Open. She was also the first black player on the Ladies Professional Golfing Association Tou.
Nick Bollettieri, who never competed in elite tennis but was once the world’s most famous tennis coach, developing 10 players who reached the No. 1 international ranking in singles, died on Sunday at his home in Bradenton, Fla. He was 91.
David R. Legge, a journalist who is writing an authorized biography about Bollettieri, confirmed his death. Legge said Bollettieri began having renal problems several months ago and that his health had deteriorated since then.
Bollettieri was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., in 2014 as a “contributor” to the game. He joined only three others honored solely for their coaching, the longtime Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman and two other Americans, Vic Braden and Dr. Robert Johnson, an advocate for African American junior tennis who mentored Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe.
Bollettieri co-founded the Port Washington Tennis Academy on Long Island in 1966, its star pupils including John McEnroe and Vitas Regularities.
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