‘Even as an 11-Year-Old’- Coach Rick Macci Reveals Where Serena Williams’ Raging Intensity First Began

Tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams have inspired many young athletes across sports to follow their passion. While they ruled the WTA Tour for the past two decades, there’s a lot of hard work and preparation that goes behind it. The preparation, in their case, started pretty early, under the watchful eye of their father, Richard Williams, and later, Rick Macci.

Macci, much like their father, nurtured them and prepared them to cope with the intensity of the professional tour. In the years that he coached the Williams sisters, he observed their playing style and attitude from close quarters. Recently, in an interview, he revealed a particular incident that happened while he was coaching Serena Williams.

Serena Williams had the determination to be number 1

Serena, as per Macci, was a fierce competitor from a very young age. Full of energy, the younger Williams sister was sure about becoming the world number 1 tennis player in the future. Macci recalled an incident that made him believe Serena.

“Serena is 11 and Venus is 12 and it’s the middle of July. It’s like 110 degrees. Move your feet. She goes, why? She gives me that look. A lot of people have seen that look at the US Open. She had that look even as an 11-year-old, and I go, you say you wanna be number one. She goes, I will be number one,” he said.

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Serena climbed the rankings very early in her career and reached the pinnacle of the WTA rankings on the 8th of July, 2002.

Williams to play in two different tournaments before the US Open

The former world number 1 had a disappointing end to her comeback campaign in the Wimbledon Championships 2022. Playing after a long gap, she looked rusty, as the 40-year-old did not play many games before entering the tournament.

However, Serena looks pretty determined to go for the US Open title and will be participating in the National Bank Open in Toronto and the Cincinnati Masters before the start of the US Open.

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Serena has 23 Grand Slam titles and needs only one more to equal the all time record of Margaret Court. Now that the American is putting in a lot of effort, it will be interesting to see if she can go all the way in her home Grand Slam.