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“She Was a Prankster”: Former Coach Spills Out Interesting Story About Serena Williams

Published 11/22/2021, 9:00 AM EST

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American tennis player Serena Williams has been in the news lately. Ever since the movie King Richard premiered, she has been all over the place. The movie is based on the early life of her and her sister Venus. However, the main focus is on the struggles their father Richard Williams had to go through and emerge on top. 

Recently, their former coach during their early teens, Rick Macci spoke on a few interesting topics regarding Venus and Serena Williams. He revealed an amusing story that involved Serena and her funny side. 

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The 66-year-old stated, “I have hundreds of stories of Venus, Serena, and Richard. I like to tell a couple of stories which are kind of funny. This was 1992 when we were here in Florida and I was on the court with Serena and Venus was on the next court. They both had their own court, and it was like the middle of July and 110 degrees and I told Serena who I used to call Meek.”

Not many are aware of Serena Williams’ middle name

The former coach revealed some interesting aspects as far as the middle name of Serena is concerned. He also asked her to rectify her moments with regard to her footwork. If she wanted to be the best player in the world, she would require to make the necessary adjustments. 

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The former coach revealed, “Her middle name is Jamika. I never called her Serena. I told her you got to move your feet Meek, and she looks at me and asked why? I told her well, you told me that you wanted to be number one. She looked at me in the eye and was like I will be number one. So I go like how are you going to move your feet? She was a prankster, she was immature.”

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The 40-year-old had a naughty side 

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He revealed her mischievous side. The American coach also mentioned her love for fast food and how she was adamant when she wanted a particular thing, which he felt was a good sign indicating her competitive attitude. As of today, Williams cannot control her laughter when she hears of herself during her childhood. 

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T USPTA Florida Hall of Famer added, “She told me, Rick, I’m really really hungry can you tell Scott to go to the machine and get me hot curly fries and a snicker’s bar and a Pepsi and a green day T-shirt. For the next 15 minutes, she was having her snack. For the next hour, this little girl was popping the popcorn, extra butter just non-stop for one hour sweats coming off her like the Niagara Falls and she was like Rick, you better have that T-shirt in the morning. At the end of the day, this is all part of the journey growing up. We all have our ups and downs. But that story alone when I told her that she was just laughing, falling on the ground.”

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Coming to tennis, Serena withdrew from the Wimbledon Championships after twisting her ankle during the opening round match. She then skipped the US Open due to a hamstring injury. She intends to come back stronger in the 2022 season. We wish her the very best. 

Watch this story: The Journey of Roger Federer to the Elite Billionaire’s Club

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Written by:

Rohan Kollare

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Rohan Kollare is a Tennis author at EssentiallySports. Rohan has studied Sports Management and has a trophy cabinet adorned with accolades won in district and state-level tennis competitions. He has previously worked in Content Operations for Disney’s Hotstar for over a year, covering Tennis and Formula One.
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