Swimmer, musician and tennis player: McCabe is a man of many talents

Dabbling in multi-sports appears to be a common phenomenon in Australia. Ashleigh Barty, who quit tennis aged 25 soon after winning the 2022 Australian Open, represented Brisbane Heat in women's Big Bash League besides winning a golf tournament.

Australia's pace-bowling all-rounder Ellysse Perry is the only female athlete to have represented a country in two team sports. The other being football.

James McCabe has a long way to go before he can be compared to these two stalwarts, but signs are there.

A national junior 200m butterfly swimming champion, who is a flutist with an AMusA (Associate in Music, Australia) diploma, McCabe is seriously pursuing a career in tennis now. And the 19-year-old underlined his potential by reaching the semifinals at the ongoing Bengaluru Open as a qualifier here at the KSLTA courts.

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McCabe, who is also a guitarist and singer, might be a man of many talents but tennis is the closest to his heart.

“I knew I loved tennis more and picked it over swimming when I was 15,” said McCabe who was born in the Philippines. “Finishing school was always the priority and I managed to get good grades. If nothing works, worst case scenario, I can get a doctorate in music,” added the 346th-ranked player who is coached by father Patrick McCabe.

On Friday, McCabe defeated France’s Harold Mayot to reach his first ever ATP Challenger semifinal. And the big-serving, hard-hitting aggressive competitor on court, who comes across as a soft-spoken teenager off it, credits his music knowledge for helping him tackle tense moments during play.

“Music gives me a different outlook. Before every match I always listen to classical music. It calms the mind. From Beethoven to Frederic Chopin.. just different styles but with the same frequency and pitch,” he expressed.

Incidentally, it is the same pre-match ritual his idol Novak Djokovic follows too - something McCabe got to know of when he was invited for a practice session by the 22-time Grand Slam Champion before getting deported from Australia last year.

“The day after losing in the Australian Open qualifying round in 2022, I received a call from someone asking if I would want to hit with Djokovic in 30 minutes at Rod Laver arena. I was like 'Yeah!'. That was probably my quickest shower, and the quickest I have ever run to the car in my life,’ he recollects.

“I was lucky enough when Djokovic asked me to hit with him again the next day on Margaret Court Arena and then with Nick Kyrgios at John Cain Arena and I had a small cameo in that Netflix documentary as well.”

And this was the second time McCabe was meeting the Serbian star. The first was as a young boy way back in 2013 when, as a national champion, he got an opportunity to toss the coin for the Djokovic vs David Ferrer match at the Aus Open.

“I chose Ferrer to make the call because everybody told me to choose Novak. I told him that when we practiced and he remembered it. That was nice. It has got to be the highlight of my career so far,” he said.

McCabe has had a remarkable climb of more than 900 places in the ranking list since he first turned pro 14 months ago. The naturally gifted athlete now hopes to make a mark by composing his own symphony in the world of tennis.