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Inside Hokie Sports
T
aking down the No. 1 team or player in the country isn’t an easy task. Just ask Virginia
Tech women’s tennis player Francesca Fusinato. It took her three tries to defeat Joana
Eidukonyte of Clemson.
Her game finally came together on Jan. 28 of last year in Blacksburg. The Italian defeated
the nation’s No. 1 player in straight sets. After a hard-fought first set, Fusinato closed it out,
winning 7-5, 6-2. Her victory marked the first win ever by a Tech player over a top-ranked
opponent in the program’s history.
Fusinato’s matches with Eidukonyte have embodied her overall career to this point. The
road in tennis hasn’t been easy for Fusinato, who grew up in Feltre Belluno, Italy, a town
north of Venice and not too far from the Austrian border. The road to Virginia Tech and a
new life has been even harder.
“Feltre is a really small town, so it’s kind of like Blacksburg,” Fusinato said. “Here, even
though Blacksburg is a small reality, it’s a big reality student-wise. In Europe, we don’t
have a big facility for a university. It’s just one building. This was a big reality compared
to my town.”
Growing up in a small town, the multi-sport athlete didn’t settle on tennis until she was a
teenager. Similar to a lot of American kids, she tried several different sports before settling
on the one that ultimately led her to the United States.
“It was never about tennis until I was 16,” she said. “Before that, I played basketball. I
was actually on the regional team. I played volleyball, and I was pretty good at skiing. For
fun, I played soccer because that’s what it’s like in Italy.”
Perhaps, though, she was destined to become a tennis player. After all, her dad serves
as a tennis coach. Behind his gentle prodding, she picked up a racket when she was just 3
years old.
Fusinato didn’t get the same training that most girls or guys receive in the U.S. Living in
a small town meant limited opportunities to play against girls her age—but that didn’t stop
her from pursuing competition and excelling against it.
“Since Feltre is a small town, there were no girls to play with,” she said. “I was just playing
with guys. There was one tennis club that was close. There wasn’t much opportunity. I had
to travel a lot to play in the tournaments I wanted to play in.”
Those tournaments were all over Europe. Whether it was traveling to Croatia, Austria
or Slovenia, Fusinato knew that she had to make the long trips to get to where she wanted
to be as a player. She often drove up to six hours to play in tournaments and get exposure.
That exposure wasn’t easy to get, and the idea of college wasn’t exactly in the plans.
“In Italy and Europe four or five years ago, it wasn’t as common to come to college like it
is now,” she said. “I had no clue this thing [coming to college in the U.S.] existed. School was
always the priority, so I had to buy time to play tennis. Once I was done with high school, I
thought I could train seriously and play in pro tournaments.”
Small
-town
court
BIG
on
the
GIRL
makingit
Francesca Fusinato
grew up in a small
town in northern Italy,
but has adjusted nicely
to life in the United
States, becoming a
big-time player for the
Virginia Tech women’s
tennis team
by
Nathan Loprete
Special to Inside Hokie Sports