Meet Andrea Cabio

“Class of 2009”

In March, Andrea Cabio won the girls doubles at the Under 16 Canadian Indoor Championships. It’s a great achievement on its own, but this was Andrea’s third national title. She had first won the Under 16 girls doubles at the 2022 Canadian Outdoor Championships, and won again at the same event in 2023. She accomplished this with three different partners, and the recent one came just a few weeks after her 15th birthday. She’ll still be eligible for under 16 competition through to the end of 2025. Impressive? For sure! 

Although I’ve had experience in the world of tennis for the past 40 years, and intensely so for the past 20 years, the world of high performance is not my niche. So when Andrea accepted an invitation for a conversation, I was delighted … and just a little starstruck, if truth be told. 

I was met by a composed and mature young woman across the table. To my questions about how- does-this-remarkable-success-come-about, she shared her routine as if it were a normal teenage life. When she’s at home, tennis fills each afternoon : three hours on court and one hour for fitness training. Every day! This is with the ACE Academy, where the team of coaches has guided her progress for the past four years. Weekends are normally taken up with tournament competition. 

Time at home is interspersed with considerable time on the road. Sometimes this is within Canada for national and ITF tournaments, but there have also been noteworthy travels abroad. Most recently it was a month in Denmark and Norway, part of a team of six girls chosen by Tennis Canada for the experience of playing in ITF Junior tournaments. Last year, there was a trip to Austria and France, another to Sweden, and to Israel for the Tennis Europe Tournament. In 2022, it was the Czech Republic and the ITF World Junior Tennis finals, with a side trip to Austria. At the end of 2021, a tour of Italy and Portugal was very welcome after the lengthy interruptions of the pandemic. The first overseas trip had been in 2019, when at the age of 10 Andrea travelled to Paris with the Tennis Canada team. Before that, and each December since, there’s a month or more in Florida for the year-end tournament circuit. 

So what is it like to leave home and travel the world as a tennis player? A limited interview can only explain so much, but a picture emerges that sounds very much like the life of a WTA or ATP pro … though with a lot less comfort and frills. Tournament weeks often have few (if any) courts available for practice, so those supporting routines are absent. Same story for gym and training facilities. Match times can be anywhere from 8:00am to 11:00pm, and players are responsible for having themselves fit and ready when called. All sorts of everyday routines like meals and sleep and laundry can be difficult. Accommodation can be four-to-a-room, with one bathroom and often no air-conditioning. The purpose of the trip is to provide the young players with the experience of tough competition in the face of all these surrounding challenges. How resilient can they be? How resourceful? How tenacious? 

Again like the pros, there are large expanses of time in between things. This is where “the team” becomes hugely important and where camaraderie among the players looms large. Andrea lights up when she speaks about the bonds of friendship with her teammates. They play all sorts of games, with their competitive instincts fully engaged. Picture fierceness with a healthy dose of laughter. They’re all fully conversant with the larger tennis world, and share notes about the latest playlists, and equipment or clothing trends, as well as following what’s happening on the tennis websites. They live a lifestyle like few others their age, so having each other to share it is vital. “We all have our struggles”, she says. “But we can relate to each other and we know our teammates have our back.” 

Such support is absolutely essential because these trips aren’t designed to be a picnic. Tennis Canada travel teams are a very important part of the high performance development structure and have one purpose : to provide young players the opportunity to become world-class. The trips are complicated to organize and expensive to implement. The coaches have high expectations for behaviour and performance. This isn’t an occasion for compliments, but rather for the hard news about areas for improvement. Bottom line for the players : don’t come on this trip unless you want to work very hard and learn how to get more from yourself than you previously thought you could. 

Andrea embraces the challenge. Leaving home in the company of coaches and fellow players is something she’s learned to enjoy. One senses that she’s a leader, ready to step up with whatever is needed to support her teammates. She says she’s trying to be “not so hard on myself” … to stay calm when things aren’t going her way … and to learn from watching her teammates’ matches. “We’re pretty beat down by the end of the tour … but it’s worth it.” 

I asked how her schedule looks for the next six months, and what goals she might have for that period. Andrea was surprised at the question. It seems she doesn’t think in those terms. Life, and tennis, is about living today – albeit with an eye on the next event. Sometimes there’s a suitcase to be packed, other times it’s whatever is needed for a long day at a local tournament venue. 

At this age, players can make gains rapidly. Decisions for Tennis Canada teams happen with relatively short notice. There may be a trip this summer, and Andrea may hope to be selected, but that will be dependent on her performance over the coming weeks. 

Andrea enjoys the love and support of two very proud parents. The family home is near the Milton Tennis Club, which is where Andrea hit her first tennis balls and still calls “tennis home” today. She has a strong family tennis background with her mother and father, and also with grandparents in The Philippines. She expresses the deepest gratitude for all the support that makes her tennis life possible, including her family, ACE Tennis, her coaches, the Milton TC and OTA and Tennis Canada, and Yonex. 

Coaches make a significant impact on the life of a young athlete, and Andrea has happy memories of Gabriel Radulescu and (the late) Andrei Radulescu, her first coaches when she began tennis at age five. Brandon Alguire became an influence at age 10, and Kirill Kudyma at age 13. 

School is still very important, but of necessity requires a flexible schedule. Now in grade nine, Andrea prefers online schooling since in-person attendance means extra work for the teachers to accommodate frequent absences. She maintains high grades across the board. 

There’s yet more from our short conversation, but let’s save that for another instalment. Andrea’s thoughts and ideas about the doubles game, for example. She professes to enjoy writing, and has no trouble filling the journal players are asked to keep during the overseas tours. Perhaps she’ll write something for us next time. 

Until then : Andrea, you have a very large and loud cheering section here in SouthWest Region. Please take with you our very best wishes for your endeavours this summer. 

[Check out Andrea’s record on World Tennis Number. She has a rating of 19.8 and over 500 matches to her credit.]