Remembering Bruno
Bruno Agostinelli Futures honours former tennis player from Niagara Falls
The family of Bruno Agostinelli Jr. had front row seats for Sunday’s men’s singles final of the Bruno Agostinelli Futures tennis tournament held at White Oaks in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The $25,000 International Tennis Federation tournament was held in memory of Agostinelli Jr., a talented tennis player and coach, who died in March of this year in a motorcycle accident.
The Niagara Falls native, a Tennis Canada coachforunder14 and under-12 players, was an All-American and the secondranked NCAA player at the University of Kentucky, and won the deciding fifth match for Canada against Peru in the Davis Cup playdowns in 2009.
“It means a great deal to us to have Bruno’s memory remembered here at White Oaks,” Bruno’s brother Gianluca Agostinelli said. “This is where his tennis career began as a young player.”
Gianluca described the day as bittersweet.
“It brings us a lot of joy to have the tournament at White Oaks, but that joy is also met equally by an unending sorrow because of what we have had to experience in the last seven months.”
Sunday’s singles final featured Canadian Brayden Schnur, a former University of North Carolina standout, and top-seeded American Adam El Mihdawy. Mihdawy won the final 4-6, 7-5 and 6-4, but Schnur teamed with partner Filip Peliwo to win the doubles final 3-6, 6-3 and 10-5 over Americans Hunter Reese and Jackson Withrow.
The 21-year-old Schnur, a Pickering native, got involved with honouring Agostinelli Jr. by creating the Aces for Bruno campaign during the tournament. He pledged $5 for each ace he made during the tournament and managed to get four other people to match his donations. By the end of the tournament, Schnur had served about 50 aces.
“When I found out Tennis Canada had named this tournament after him, I was wondering what I could do honour him,” he said. “I knew the Davis Cup team was going to wear a patch for him, but I wanted to do something different.”
The money will be used for a trust fund for Agostinelli’s son, Alessio, who was born Feb. 26 of this year.
“No family or a young kid should have to go through that and I wanted to start something that I could give back a little bit and hopefully help others give back also,” Schnur said.
There is also an on-line campaign (https://www.gofundme. com/brunoagostinelli) to help collect funds. To date, more than $97,000 has been raised.
Tennis Canada felt it was important to stage a tournament in Agostinelli’s honour.
“Bruno meant a lot to many of us,” said Hatem McDadi, Tennis Canada’s senior vice-president of tennis development. “He was a national coach, a former Davis Cup hero and he helped so many and did so much for the game.
“We wanted to make sure his name and his spirit were kept alive.”
Agostinelli is remembered as an excellent player and coach.
“He really did a great job and the kids loved him,” McDadi said. “He worked extremely hard, he really cared about the kids and he was there for them.”
Tennis Canada plans to make the tournament an annual event in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
“It’s a beautiful facility and they did an excellent job,” McDadi said.
White Oaks director of tennis Giovanni Rodriguez, who also served as tournament director, got to know Agostinelli Jr. through White Oak’s Tennisfest last September. Agostinelli played an exhibition match at the event.
“Bruno didn’t even know me and he was very generous,” Rodriguez said. “That’s why the tournament had to be in his name.”
The Niagara-on-the-Lake tournament concluded the Canadian men’s pro circuit, which included stops in Gatineau, Sherbrooke, Richmond, Kelowna, Saskatoon, Calgary and Toronto.
The ITF circuit is the entry level of professional tournaments for players hoping to reach the Association of Tennis Professinals World Tour. The circuit has more than 600 tournaments across 77 countries.