Who Is Paolo Col?
Paolo is just 18 but already into his second year of studying Accounting and Finance and playing in the tennis team at UEL.
He was born in Italy but moved to Belgium at the age of 3. Before moving to London, he lived in Mons where he attended the Belgian International School S.H.A.P.E. It was at school he learnt English fluently which was a factor in helping him make his decision to join UEL.
Ever since watching his father play tennis when he was 6 years old, he was inspired to start playing himself. His passion began to grow training five times a week since he turned nine years old. With Paolo’s dad being a tennis coach, he was taught to a high level in order to be able to compete in high level tournaments in Belgium.
The likes of Roger Federer and Denis Shapovalov are his tennis inspirations due to Paolo being coached to play with a similar distinctive one-handed backhand.
London Life
When he finished college in Belgium he wanted to combine his studying as well as his love for tennis, “My initial plan was to move to the United States after college. I then found out that UEL offered a similar programme where I could play and study. I visited the campus and I was really impressed by all the facilities here. I then got offered a tennis scholarship which made me want to come.”
He now enjoys living with a host family who he describes as, “very friendly”. However, at first, he struggled to get used to London, “I had an issue with all the public transport as I just wasn’t used to it.”
Tennis and Studying
Last season, Paolo became one of the team’s most important players and he feels he’s improving his tennis due to the high intensity sessions and the healthy competition amongst the team, “There is a very good connection between all members of the team, it makes practice fun.”
He has managed to find a perfect balance between studying and training, he has lectures two days a week and spends the rest of the week on the court. Additionally, he’s able to attend strength and conditioning sessions as part of his tennis scholarship. He also gets the opportunity to use services like a physio and an osteopath to keep himself fit and healthy for matches.
Covid-19’s Impact
Unfortunately, since March there has been no competitive BUCS (university level) matches. The conclusion of last season was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic and no competitive matches are scheduled until after Christmas this year.
The team’s coach, Andrew Foster, had arranged friendly matches to be played with other universities to keep his players competing and for extra practice. However, due to a spike in Covid-19 cases since September and a second lockdown being put in place in November, none of these have been able to go ahead.
Paolo spent his summer away from London and on his return to the UK he had to quarantine for 14 days. He was therefore unable to join team training session at the beginning of the academic year. Now, with tennis being banned due to lockdown, Paolo faces more time away from the court. However, Paolo remains motivated to keep improving as an athlete, despite the challenges he faces, “I’ve been keeping my fitness up and doing S&C (strength and conditioning) at home, but no, I can’t play tennis at the moment.”
Future Aspirations
Once Paolo finishes his studies in London he would like to try to “compete on the international stage for a year or two to see if there’s a chance for me to continue in that path.” Otherwise, he will try to use the degree he gets from his course to get a job as an accountant or be an entrepreneur starting his own business.
