Feature Photo: Olivia Liu competing at the U18 Junior Nationals championships.

We’re thrilled to welcome Olivia Liu to the Tennis Alberta team this summer as our Community Programs Assistant.

Olivia is studying Business Economics and Statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and playing club tennis. Originally from Calgary, Olivia recently completed an impressive junior tennis career, reaching #35 in the country, winning Alberta Junior Provincials, and competing at Junior Nationals.

We sat down with Olivia for a quick Q&A to get to know her.

Q: You just finished your first year studying business economics and statistics at UCLA, as well as playing post-secondary club tennis. What is something you’ve learned so far at school—whether it’s about your studies, your tennis, or just living in another country—that you can share with us?

Olivia: The biggest lesson that I’ve learned this year is that if you really want something, you have to go out of your way and get it or create it, and that opportunities won’t really just come to you. Coming into UCLA, I thought that because it’s a pretty good school opportunities would naturally find you, but I quickly realized that there are thousands of talented students, and if you simply just wait and let things come to you, you’ll never get those opportunities in the first place.

I also realized the students who seem to accomplish the most are always the ones who are the most proactive. They’re always the ones sending the email, asking to talk to certain people or to network, applying themselves in different competitions, and always talking to the professors. Since I grew up in Calgary—a smaller city where I knew most people at school and in the tennis community—being thrusted into a big public school like UCLA made it easy to get lost in the crowd. So, I’d say the biggest lesson I learned is just to be proactive.

Q: You had an impressive junior career, achieving a national ranking of 35, winning Alberta provincials, and making the quarterfinals at junior nationals. What advice do you have for our own juniors coming up through their development? And looking back, is there anything you took for granted that you wish you could experience again?

Olivia: My biggest advice for juniors would be to focus less on the rankings, like your UTR, and just more on improving and getting better every day. It’s hard when you’re playing tournaments week in and week out and traveling so often; it can be easy to get caught up on your results and how well you’re doing. Results are important, but at the end of the day, they’re not everything. If you just really work hard and focus on improving yourself and not comparing yourself with other people, then the rankings will just take care of themselves.

Looking back, I took for granted just how much time I had with the tennis community. I played so many tournaments, but what I really miss is the moments in between play—hanging out with friends watching matches, and even just my private lessons. I really miss those days of junior tennis and just being fully involved with everyone.

Q: Who is a coach, teammate, or athlete that inspired you or that you look up to?

Olivia: A coach that inspired me a lot was my own coach, Shane Nichols. I’ve been with him since I was 14, right after COVID, when he became my main coach. I was with him for four to five years until I graduated. What I really loved about working with him is that our communication went both ways. If I had an issue or something that I really wanted to work on, I could voice it to him and he’d listen.

In a lot of coach-player relationships, it’s very one-dimensional where it’s always the coach constantly giving feedback. The coach will just ramble on, but the players aren’t able to reciprocate what they want, so the lessons are ineffective. That’s something that I really love about working with Shane: I could tell him what I was feeling, and it would guide him on what we needed to work on.

Another athlete that I look up to is just Eileen Gu. She’s an Olympic gold medalist freestyle skier, and she’s insane. I look up to her a lot because she’s been able to balance so much. Obviously she won the Olympics and she’s great at her sport, but she’s also a really eloquent speaker and she’s very smart—she went to Stanford and just graduated this year. She’s very multifaceted, and that’s something that I definitely aspire to be.

Q: What is your favorite cuisine, and do you have a specific go-to pre-game meal?

Olivia: My favorite cuisine is Japanese food because I love sushi, poke bowls, and ramen. Japanese cuisine is definitely my favorite.

I don’t think I have a specific go-to pre-game meal. I do remember when I was playing junior tournaments and traveling, either with Shane or with some other players, we’d always get pasta after matches. And then now that I’m in California, I always look forward to getting acai bowls after matches. I love them.

Q: Since you mentioned sushi, what is your go-to spot in Calgary, and is there anything specific you always order?

Olivia: One that I’ve just been going to for so long is probably Kinjo because it’s really close—there’s one by my house and I used to go there a lot. They’re a chain, so they have a lot of locations.

It’s funny because I would go there, but I wouldn’t always get their sushi; I’d always get their fried rice! It’s affordable, there are so many locations, and you know it’s going to hit. You can’t go wrong.


A big thank you to Olivia for chatting with us! We’re glad to have her supporting our programs and events during this busy summer season ahead. Welcome to the team, Olivia!

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