"I was the luckiest man in the world and now I am the unluckiest"

Nino Severino needs no reminders of loss, no nudge towards remembrance.

But if every day has its routine shard of grief there are moments too that remind him of the sustaining love surrounding Elena Baltacha, his wife who died, aged 30, a year ago.

"I have still got Bal's iPad," says Severino, "and I looked at a file in it the other day. She was thanking people who had helped her, mentioning Louis Cayer [doubles coach] and Judy Murray [Fed Cup captain, friend and mentor] and saying how blessed she was to have these people in her life. Then there was line that said: 'Thanks to Nino for believing in me when I did not believe in myself'."

The Baltacha story is tragic, how could the death of a vibrant, talented woman at 30 be anything but? However it is also inspiring and has not ended with her passing from liver cancer.

Baltacha, born in Ukraine but raised in Scotland, endured physical illnesses such as a chronic liver problem and overcame psychological barriers to become a top-50 player before retiring in November 2013 and marrying Severino a month later.

Her personal mission was to be the best she could be. But she was never restricted by private concerns. Baltacha threw herself into creating a tennis academy. "She would fly in from a tournament in Europe and be at a school that morning," says Severino.

The Baltacha ethos of discipline, politeness and health will be incorporated as a branch of her academy is set to open in Glasgow and funds for her charity are raised at an event in the Western Tennis Club, Hyndland, next Saturday.

"I have more respect for Bal now than I have ever had," says her husband who was also her coach.

"When I look back she got to the top 50 in the world two years in a row with a coach who was not a tennis coach. That is amazing. I do not know how she did it. The strength the woman had. I cannot take masses of credit. It was a case of sorting a few areas out and then she flew."

Their love story is at the heart of this soaring towards the top of the rankings and it continues in the work Severino does at the Baltacha Academy in his home town of Ipswich.

The relationship started in 2007 some years after Severino had gone into coaching after waking up as a successful businessman "one Wednesday morning" and deciding his life was unfulfilled. He devised a training strategy, Footsport Dynamics, and he went on to work at elite level with national associations and world-class boxers. He also educated coaches at Manchester United to deliver his programmes.

His over-riding talent was to motivate, and to strengthen the mentality of, athletes across a range of disciplines.

He says of the woman who would become his wife: "We hit it off from the start. We could talk about all the dark areas of the mind."

"Athletes can be complex beings. With me and Bal, the one thing that we were very good at was separating the professional and personal thing. When it came to business we could home in on the things that needed to be done.

"The great thing about Bal - and I have worked with world-class athletes - is that she was without a doubt the best overall athlete I have worked with. She was open to anything she thought would solve a problem, would make her a stronger athlete. With that platform, we tackled some of the demons, some of the things that did not make her feel great."

The results were dramatic. Baltacha improved as a player but, in tandem, she was determined to open up tennis to children.

The academy wants to give tennis to those who could not afford it and this is a guiding principle of the initiative that is about to open in Glasgow.

The academy offers pastoral care, medical screenings, sports science support, strength and conditioning, injury-prevention programmes. It has a parent and player educational system which includes emotional support, psychology, nutrition and tennis lifestyle programmes.

It is therefore not about creating tennis stars but fully-formed human beings. Children as young as three come to the academy but Severino says: "This is not a baby-sitting service. It is a life experience. The children come in and they learn how to stand still, to listen, to focus. It is about camaraderie, working together. It is about parents getting on, players getting on. The feeling around the academy is the personality of Bal."

This presence is uplifting but it can extract a price. "We still stand in the middle of the court and cry our eyes out," says Severino of the occasions when remembrance is shared dramatically with fellow coaches.

"It is still so horrible, I cannot explain to you, the hurt is indescribable. But we are all driven to keep what she did in life alive," he says.

"I love my wife more and more each day. You can take things for granted. You take things as being normal. But Bal wasn't normal. I was privileged and it hurt me not having her by my side. I was the luckiest man in the world and now I am the unluckiest."

There is no self-pity in this but rather an acknowledgement of the extraordinary character of his partner.

"It was the most incredible period of my life," he says.

But that life now continues with the academy and the ideas it fosters being central to his day.

"And do you know why all this stuff has happened afterwards?" he asks of the move to take the academy principle to Scotland to raise money for cancer charities.

"The legacy is because she was the most unselfish, caring person. She was also the ultimate professional, so hard in so many ways. A fighter. People recognise all of that."

He adds: "There is a line that says what you do here on Earth echoes in eternity. That is true of Bal. She was loved by so many people, not for a one-off kindness but for her continued humility and care. She was a beautiful, beautiful woman.

"The only reason this is carrying on is because there are so many people who love and respect Bal. That simple. There was no way we could have done this if she did not have that great effect on such a volume of people."

He is delighted about the prospect of the Baltacha academy having a home in Glasgow.

"She loved Scotland. One of the things that breaks my heart is that we were going to spend so much more time in Scotland. That is why I really want to make this effort to set up the scheme in Scotland. I know how much she will be smiling right now."

He adds: "I hope it is the first of a lot of Elena Baltacha academies in Scotland. I will embrace anyone who wants to do that. None of it is about profit. It is about beautiful Bal echoing and echoing down the years."

It never ends.