MELBOURNE – Angelo was six years old when first stepped onto a tennis court with his father.
Initially he wasn’t very keen, but within a short time Angelo caught the tennis bug and began spending hours with racket in hand. He trained with his father until the age of eight before taking private lessons.
“As time went on, my passion for tennis continued to grow,” said Angelo.
“Even though I get quite angry on the court, I love the sport and I think I’ll never stop.
“I’ve won as many matches as I’ve lost. Every win gives me great satisfaction and every loss causes me the suffering I need to keep learning.”
Angelo is in Year 9 at Bayside College in Williamstown where he has been selected for the tennis program consisting of four hours of formal education and two hours of training every day.
“For most of us it’s not enough,” he revealed. “We’ve gotten in trouble several times because we try to maximise our [playing] time by practicing in the morning before school and in the afternoon after class.
“Those two hours of tennis during school hours are pure joy.”
The young player is very grateful to his coaches. “I owe a lot to John Trickey and Daniel Walsh,” he said. “They, along with all the other coaches involved in the program, helped me get where I am today.”
Trickey is a former professional player and coach of the Australian women’s national team who was in the top 200 in the ATP rankings.
Angelo shows great character and maturity when he confidently states that tennis doesn’t take anything away from him.
“I like to always have something to do,” he said assuredly. “I only have to give up little things like going to bed late, but even that helps build good habits.”
Angelo sees every match as an opportunity for personal growth and learning, “whether I meet a better player than me or a less prepared one”. But there is one thing he finds especially difficult: playing against his friends. “If you lose to one of them, then you have to hear him bragging,” he explained.
One of Angelo’s idols is the Italian of the moment, Jannik Sinner. He likes the fact that Sinner often plays offense and believes “my game resembles his more than any other player.”
Like Sinner, Angelo briefly also trained at the Piatti academy, a hotbed of tennis’ greatest talents.
“The training methods and techniques are different, but even in Australia you find coaches with different approaches,” he shared.
Angelo is a determined and clear-minded athlete, who, if he had to choose which national team to play for, says he would opt for the Green-Gold.
“Australia was the country that allowed me to cultivate my passion for the sport and gave me the resources to improve myself,” he explained.
In 2023, Angelo made the list of Victoria’s top 32 under-14 players and this year he aims to do the same at the national level.
For 2025, Angelo’s ambition lies in getting sponsorship from the brand Head, one of the most prestigious in the tennis world.
But Angelo’s gaze is focused even further ahead, towards the biggest dream, “winning four Grand Slams in one year”.
“I will try in everything to achieve this goal and will do my best to overcome every obstacle.”
