Niño Severino husband of Elena Baltacha comes to Dukes Meadows

The husband of the recently deceased British tennis champion Elena Baltacha has joined the team at the FC**tennis academy at Dukes Meadows.

Niño said, “Dukes Meadows is a world class venue, housing a full time tennis and golf academy, the vision is to excel at the highest level, I am very excited to be welcomed as part of the very experienced and talented team already based here”.

A spokesperson for the club said, "Niño has been a friend of Dukes Meadows for many years and we think he is a superb addition to our team."

Niño established his reputation through coaching athletes in his sports performance academy with 3 reaching official EIS world class level. There were also 10 British Internationals included in his SPA squad. His coaching resume continued to be varied with him developing his ‘Footsport’ training program and delivering it to Manchester United Football Club’s coaching team at their Carrington Training Ground, being part of the England Boxing Coaching Team at Crystal Palace and The EIS World Class Centre in Manchester. He mentions that he felt: ”Very privileged to have coached Amir Khan in his very first session.”

Niño provided tuition for the LTA's elite Strength & Conditioning coaches during their National Coaching Programme at Roehampton and has also presented at prestigious universities such as Loughborough and Edinburgh.

In cricket he has worked with Sussex and Surrey Cricket Club and The England Cricket Board at The Oval, Lords and The NTC. This led to him being asked to work for 3 years in professional golf; writing conditioning programmes for The PGA with Paul Darby, presenting to British Pro Golfers at The Belfry and being asked to prepare training facilities for Tiger Woods at Wentworth.

Nino’s passion for sports led to him finding the love of his life and his sole client for the last 8 years the late professional tennis player Elena Baltacha-Severino.

During their time together they progressed from 170 in the world to WTA top 50 for two consecutive years, holding the British No.1 status for 132 consecutive weeks. Their finest year delivered quarter final placing at WTA Premier Event, Automatic Main Draw placing at all 4 Grand Slams, 3 top ten wins against Li Na and reigning Grand Slam Champion Francesca Schiavone.

During their partnership on the tour they worked very closely with world class coaches such as Judy Murray, Nigel Sears and Louis Cayer. They completed their partnership as player and coach as official members of Team GB At The 2012 Olympics.

August 29, 2014