Our Story: We 0-0 Tennis!

The Challenge

MPTennis was an idea born of enthusiasm and frustration. In 2010, Cade started playing tennis at the age of 7. As Cade began to enjoy tennis more and more and showed an interest to compete at the highest level in Atlantic Canada, the coach in Chris came out.

Chris spent numerous hours learning how to play and coach tennis so he could help Cade chase his dreams. Years later, after spending countless hours on the court together, Cade is now a NCAA college tennis player and aspiring to play pro tennis after college.

Both of them are now certified Club Pro 1 tennis pros and now they want to share their knowledge and experience with students of all ages who are truly motivated to improve their skills.

Meet Us

Cade Nadeau, Tennis Canada Club Pro 1 Certified

I started playing tennis when I was seven-years-old. I fell in love with the sport while on vacation in Mexico. My mother decided to sign me up for the recreational program at the Quispamsis Tennis Club. At nine, I entered my first competition. For many years I decided to balance playing hockey, baseball, badminton, and tennis. I competed at a very high level in hockey, but at the age of 13 I decided I wanted to chase my dream of playing college tennis.

Where we live is not optimal for tennis and I like to compare it to trying to be a pro hockey player from Jamaica. To keep up with other competitive juniors in Canada, when I started, I had to train in my garage, on my own with a ball machine or with my father feeding me balls at the outdoor courts. We have no indoor facility where I live. I knew this wasn’t going to be enough training and being on a tight family budget I moved 3 1/2 hours away to train at the Atlantic Tennis Centre, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It is a dream of mine and I have made many sacrifices to play tennis, but I love the sport. Along with playing tennis, I love coaching others and as far as I know, I am the youngest coach in Canada to be CP1 certified.

Chris Nadeau, Tennis Canada Club Pro 1 Certified

I am a former pro hockey player who thought I was going to have two kids who played hockey. Was I ever wrong!!! However, I do have two kids who are very active. Cade, as we know, loves tennis and his sister is a big-time cheerleader, who also plays every sport she possibly can (soccer, track, cross country, badminton, basketball, tennis, softball). If there is a tryout for a team, she is going.

Once I knew Cade wanted to play tennis at a high level, it became a challenge for us, since we live in an area that has no high-performance training and the closest indoor facility is an hour and a half. The cards were already stacked against us. However, here we are 7 years later and Cade is performing at a national level.

How did he get here? His discipline, drive and passion, along with a lot of help from many people in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. I like to think I played a small part in his development, as I took my passion for the game of hockey, which I loved to play and coach and transferred that energy into tennis. I never played tennis as a kid and I still don’t really play, but I love spending time with Cade on the court and helping him chase his dream.