Sarasota, FL – Tennis coaching legend Nick Bollettieri recently launched a blog at www.nickstennispicks.com which has been nominated for Best Tennis Blog by On The Baseline, the largest, independently-owned professional woman’s tennis news website in the United States. The winner is determined by the most votes among 6 nominees including the Sony Ericosn WTA Player Blogs and will be announced January 1, 2009. The blog was created by GravityFree, the Sarasota Web Agency who developed Nick’s own personal website, www.nickbollettieri.com.
The blog features Flickr photos of tennis celebrities as well as RSS feeds and averages over 25,000 visits per month. It is referred to regularly by Sports Illustrated.CNN.com.
Nick's Tennis Picks Blog
The content of the blog is focused around the five major tennis tournaments: French Open, US Open, Australia Open, Wimbledon and Sony Ericsson. The blog is linked to from other major sporting media outlets such as SportsIllustrated/CNN.com and TennisNews.com. Sports writers, journalists, enthusiasts and others can subscribe to the blog through RSS feeds and even opt to receive real-time blog updates via e-mail and Twitter throughout the day.
“Nick Bollettieri used GravityFree to maximize interactivity between him, the pro-tennis world and the public,“ says David Portnowitz, Multimedia Coordinator for Nick Bollettieri. “GravityFree is very knowledgeable and turned it around quickly. Now we’ve got an online ‘match’ going on that is fun and exciting and informative!”
As with Bollettieri’s website, GravityFree helped to structure the blog to be as user-centric as possible, making it easy to navigate and easy on the eyes. The blog matched the website in its design, but stands on its own. It is content rich and includes various types of media within it, such as video, audio and photographs. There is also opportunity for advertising on the blog.
The Bollettieri team came to us and said, “How do we make a blog work for us?” says John Barron, GravityFree’s Director of Internet Marketing. “This was a great opportunity to leverage a variety of online tools to engage an audience and at the same time promote the strong Nick Bolletieri brand.”
About Nick Bollettieri
Nick Bollettieri is one of the most influential people in the world of tennis and a legend who has transcended the sport. In 1978, he founded the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy (NBTA) in Bradenton, Florida. The NBTA was the first full-time tennis boarding school to combine intense training on the court with a custom-designed academic curriculum. The Bollettieri approach not only builds athletes on the court, but more importantly, Nick’s high expectations of each of his students prepare them for a successful life off the court as well. It was this proven method that Nick used to coach nine #1 players in the world – Agassi, Becker, Courier, Hingis, Rios, Seles, Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams.
In 1987, Nick expanded his vision when he joined forces with IMG to turn the Tennis Academy into a multi-sport training facility, now known as IMG Academies. Located on over 300 acres, the campus at IMG Academies now trains over 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult and professional athletes annually, including families and corporate groups, from over 75 countries.
