For the past few decades, the American tennis coach, Rick Macci, has guided and trained some of the greatest players on the WTA circuit. The list of such athletes also includes the American tennis icons, Venus and Serena Williams, who started their illustrious journey at a young age. It was Macci who took the “big chance” to coach the Williams sisters when the entire tennis community was against their father, ‘King’ Richard. Talking about Serena and Venus, the 68-year-old recently opened up about how Serena as a kid was different from her sister.
Rick Macci talks about Venus and Serena Williams’ attitude when they were kids.
The legendary American coach was recently featured in the Parenting Aces podcast in which he talked about how different players have their own unique characteristics, like athleticism. Later, he said how he trained and built a player differently as he always looked at the bigger picture.
What did Macci say?
During the podcast, Macci expressed his opinion on such aspects of a tennis player while talking about Serena and Venus. He said, “I think the athleticism is number one, and then the genetics would be number two”.
Macci had more to add.
He also said, “if the mental part is there, and listen, Serena was a prankster. I didn’t see it at first, but I saw she had all the time in the world. She knew where you’re gonna hit it before you did.” While talking about Serena, the 68-year-old also compared her to Venus Williams. Macci said, “Venus was more stick to it.”
Later, he talked about other tennis greats on the WTA circuit.
While talking about the Russian tennis great Maria Sharapova, he said that she was in a bubble. He said that once players have these traits, then they need to cultivate and build them. If not, then they might mess things up a lot on the court.