Jim Courier says he is no longer upset with his former coach, Nick Bollettieri, for sitting in rival Andre Agassi’s box when the pair played the 1991 Roland Garros final.
Bollettieri was also coaching Agassi at the time. Courier rallied for a five-set victory after a rain delay. Agassi has since said he was upset that Bollettieri did not offer him any significant coaching advice during the rain delay, while Courier’s coach, Jose Higueras, told him to move further back behind the baseline and grind his rival down in the slower conditions. Courier applied those tactics to win the match 3-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4. After the final, he criticized Bollettieri for siding with Agassi.
Bollettieri often cites that decision as one of his greatest career regrets. Courier says he holds no grudge against the coach.
“That’s all long gone,” Courier told The New York Times. “That was a naïve boy’s look at basically someone who had made a business decision and a smart one to align himself more closely with Andre, who could do more for him business wise. And I was very naïve in being bitter because Nick provided another coach from his stable to be with me full time and Nick had given me, I don’t know, how many thousands of dollars in food and shelter and free coaching from the age of 14. Looking back I cringe at how I reacted, although I understand why I reacted that way.”