A Passion for Tennis Leads to Opportunity
With the French Open now in full swing in Paris, few members of the Einstein community are more attuned to the efforts of the world’s top tennis players than Salvatore Calabro. And fewer still would know what it’s like to be on the court with these players, waiting for the right moment to retrieve a mishit ball and staying motionless during play to avoid causing any distractions for the players.
Sal Calabro at the U.S. Open, where he will again serve as a ball person in 2016While Mr. Calabro has never set foot on the clay at Roland-Garros, where the French Open is played, he is familiar with the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the American branch of the world’s four Grand Slam tennis events is held each August.
Last summer, Mr. Calabro—who serves as director of graduate admissions and enrollment for biomedical sciences at Einstein—spent two weeks as a ball person at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in his home borough of Queens.
While most would think working this minimum-wage job an unusual way to spend one’s summer vacation, Mr. Calabro, who has worked at Einstein for 11 years, laughed before stating, “I would have done it for free.” (He’ll be returning to the U.S. Open later this summer for a repeat performance.)
Pursuing His Passion
How did he land such an amazing gig?
It began in the streets and parks of Queens, where Mr. Calabro first played tennis for fun as a teenager. “Tennis is athletic and mental at the same time,” he said. “I enjoy the running around.”
Though he never played competitively in high school or college, he came back to the sport later in life, eventually playing regularly at the King National Tennis Center, which is near his home.
In 2014, at the request of a tennis instructor, he volunteered as a ball person for a wheelchair tournament. He worked the tournament again in 2015, where other volunteers encouraged him to try out to be a ball person at the U.S. Open.
He decided to go for it.
Making the Cut
More than 400 people of all ages show up for the chance to be on the court, amid the action. “It’s like lining up for a concert or a ‘Star Wars’ movie,” Mr. Calabro recalled.
During his initial five-minute tryout, he was required to field errant tennis balls and toss them across the court, 80 feet, with no more than one bounce. He made it through that round to the second tryout.
This time he had to catch pop-ups and toss dozens of tennis balls the full length of the court. “Thankfully, I didn’t mess up. I made pretty good throws,” he said.
He must have impressed, because he made the cut.
His Days on Court
A month later, following a one-day intensive training session, he worked his first match at the U.S. Open.
“It was a men’s qualifying match, and it was intense,” he said. “They just throw you in there and you have to be ready to react at any moment.”
Being able to accurately throw balls across court, sometimes as far as 80 feet, was among the requirements to make the cutHe continued, “The serve came my way and it hit off the scoreboard next to me really hard and fast. It was so fast, I wasn’t able to move. I said to myself, ‘Wow! This is real,’ I was nervous, but it was a lot of fun.”
For two weeks, he worked eight to nine hours daily, met people from all over the world and had one of the best views of the U.S. Open that a tennis fan can dream of.
“Professional tennis is amazing. It so fast-paced and the players are so focused,” he said.
His family and friends enjoyed sending around screenshots pulled from ESPN.com, where they could see him tossing a ball to a player.
Drawing Parallels to Science
Like any good recruiter who spends his usual workdays pitching Einstein to potential Ph.D. students, Mr. Calabro was able to draw a parallel between tennis and the work Ph.D. students do everyday in Einstein’s biomedical labs.
“Watching the top players practicing, I could see their dedication and focus on their craft. They’ve perfected their techniques, and they use them, along with a little bit of creativity, to figure out how to beat their opponents,” he observed. “It’s a lot like our Ph.D. students, who take the time and persistence to learn techniques required for solving scientific questions, using creativity as well. They each require the highest level of dedication and concentration.”
Perfecting the Role
That goes for being an effective ball person, too.
“The primary job of a ball person is to be invisible and make sure the game is never interrupted,” said Mr. Calabro.
For an event like the U.S. Open, where the world’s greatest players compete in dozens of matches in front of thousands of spectators, there are a lot of moving parts.
“No detail is too small,” he mused. “I was able to see how this high-caliber sporting event is run at the most minute level.”
Pausing a moment, he smiled and added, “For me personally, that meant not letting any errant tennis balls roll onto the court!”
Posted on: Thursday, June 02, 2016