Venus and Serena Williams have been the torchbearers of women’s tennis for well over two decades. Their dominance in the women’s circuit has set a benchmark for the incumbent young players. Many players look up to these two legends of the sport and inculcate their qualities of resilience and consistency.

However, this has come because of their early conditioning by their father Richard Williams, and their coach Rick Macci. Jon Bernthal, who portrayed the Hall of Famer coach in the movie ‘King Richard’, talked about how Macci is as a person during a recent interview.

In the interview given to Entertainment Weekly, Jon Bernthal talked about how his role depicted the strong character of the coach. He said, “Rick Macci is every bit as tough as any other character that I’ve played.“

Bernthal cleared the misconception around the notion of tough characters. He said, “We confuse these things with intimidation and brutality.” Furthermore, the actor elaborated on the coach’s character. He said, “He’s enormously focused and committed and vital character, but he practices joy and fun and gamemenship. I think those are totally strong and tough characteristics.”

Rick Macci has trained the likes of Maria Sharapova, Jennifer Capriati, and Andy Roddick among others. They were all former world no.1 players and established themselves as some of the best tennis players in the current era.

The coach, throughout his career, has cultivated raw talent into a polished professional, capable of challenging the best in the world. That is exactly what he did with Venus and Serena Williams, too. He worked along with their father, Richard Williams, who was coaching them till they met Macci. They formulated training plans and trained with them to cultivate and bring out the best in them.

In the process, both Richard and Macci became good friends and still praise each other for the roles they played in shaping the careers of the Williams sisters.

At present, the Williams sisters are gearing up for the hard-court season. Venus will play at the Citi Open and then the National Bank Open in Toronto. Furthermore, Serena Williams will also be a part of the National Bank Open in Toronto and then at the Cincinnati Masters before shifting her focus to the US Open.