Federico Boscarino was a coach and professional player, but he preferred to dedicate himself to transmitting the sport in another way
It was the first days of 2015 when Federico Boscarino He had begun his university years at Jackson State University, in Mississippi. The Tucumán tennis player, who was 19 years old at the time, had arrived with a scholarship to study while practicing his favorite sport. Today, nine years later, he continues to live in the United States and is linked to the sport of yellow ball, but from a different perspective.
Motivated by all the difficulties he had to finance his career in an Argentina where everything is uphill, Boscarino studied for three and a half years in the United States. The first section in the settlement of Mississippi; and the final stage, at the University of New Orleans, in Louisiana, where he completed his studies and received his degree in business administration.
“The tennis part is very different from Argentina. We grow on brick dust and here everything is cement. It’s much faster, the game goes much further forward, people are standing closer to the line, serving much better,” Boscarino explained to LA GACETA about the differences in the discipline itself, to which he had to adapt upon his arrival. to North America. In addition, he warned that the level of university tennis is “very high” and that it is in constant progress.
Of course, it wasn’t just the type of tennis that he had to acclimatize to. “Customs clash a lot at first, especially meal times. We are used to eating late and here at the university at 7 or 8 p.m. the cafeteria where we ate closed; “So you had to eat at 6:30 p.m. or 7 p.m.,” recalled Boscarino, who claims to be completely accustomed to the schedules. In addition, he pointed out that the food is much higher in calories, which is why most people gain a lot of weight when they settle in the United States.
After completing his studies, he moved to New Jersey where he worked for a year at a development academy called Brunswick Hills Tennis Center. There, she met the former Slovakian tennis player and current coach Vladimir Platenik, with whom he hit it off and offered him a great job opportunity. “He had been on the professional tour for about 20 years and had coached players like Dominika Cibulkova, Belinda Bencic (both former 4th in the world), and many more. We hit a very good vibe and he told me about the possibility of going to Europe to do that; something that interested me a lot. At that time we were working with Anna Blinkova (Russian tennis player, current 45th in the ranking),” he said.
HAPPY. Boscarino (left) with Anna Blinkova, a Russian player whose team was part of Tucumán for a time, at Wimbledon Photo: Courtesy Federico Boscarino
In this way, the man from Tucumán packed his suitcases and crossed the pond to settle in Platenik’s native Slovakia and continue adding different experiences. On the one hand, he was a coach of junior players – “many from Eastern Europe, like Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia” -, a job that he began to like since the summer breaks at the university. “I worked in summer camps as a tennis ‘teacher’, it started to happen little by little. I had always liked (teaching classes)… Since I was a child I have loved being on a tennis court, so the fact of being able to pass that passion on to the next generation seems nice to me. From there I was climbing; The truth is that I never thought I would end up traveling around Europe as a coach at those levels,” he analyzed.
On the other hand, she also had the opportunity to be sparring with several professional players of the highest level. Among them, in addition to Blinkova, from the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (currently 4th in the world) and the Russian Veronika Kudermetova (19th). “It was an incredible experience,” said Boscarino, who also said that to this day he maintains a friendly relationship with the Russian Blinkova.
But also, in Europe the possibility of playing interclubs had arisen, a competition that many tennis players appeal to since it provides financial income. However, the COVID pandemic arrived and in 2021, after his time as a coach and sparring partner, he returned to the United States to settle in Miami. “I started competing in some open tournaments and some ITF (International Tennis Federation), and I realized that it is very difficult for a player to keep competing all the time. It was too much training, too much time, too much money… Economically it is very, very difficult,” he reflected.
For this reason, he decided to put aside the possibility of playing at a professional level after having played some tournaments. He so he retired last year.
However, he did not stop being linked to tennis. Taking advantage of his experiences as a coach, Boscarino established himself as a private teacher and transmits his knowledge to those interested in learning tennis. In his private life, tennis is also present: his partner (whom he met precisely in the United States and is the Dominican Daysi Espinal, captain of her country’s Billie Jean King Cup team) and part of a family are very involved with tennis in the Central American country. “They have so many family tournaments,” she said, laughing.
With his life well stabilized, Boscarino does not miss the high performance that he was able to demonstrate a short time ago and projects a calm future always linked to tennis. “The truth is that I did high performance, professionally and it is not what interests me the most. It requires a lot of travel and it is difficult to be stable when you have your life in a suitcase. For now I have my clients here in Miami and I am calm; much more relaxed and without pressure for results,” concluded the man from Tucumán, for now also without considering the possibility of being a coach; a door that does not close firmly.
2024-04-30 13:22:59
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