Macci was the childhood coach of the Williams sisters

Rick Macci and Serena Williams

Serena Williams‘ former coach Rick Macci feels like the 23-time Grand Slam champion had all the time in the world to play her shots since the early age of 10. “The Compton Crusher seemed like SHE HAD ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD! Some athletes have this in their front pocket. Serena checked Every box athletically and created a few new ones,” he wrote on the platform ‘X’.

Rick Macci is a 67-year-old former American player and a highly successful tennis coach who has trained top players like Andy Roddick, Jennifer Capriati, Maria Sharapova, and the Williams sisters. The sisters practiced together for the first time with Macci in 1991 at the young age of 10.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Serena Williams was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA for 319 weeks, including a joint-record 186 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. She won 23 Grand Slam women’s singles titles, the most in the Open Era, and the second-most of all time. She is the only player to accomplish a career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.

Williams is known for her powerful groundstrokes. Her serve is considered by many as the greatest in the women’s game. At the 2013 Australian Open, she served a 128.6 mph (207 km/h) ace in her third-round match against Ayumi Morita, which is the third-fastest serve recorded in WTA history. Williams was the world’s highest-paid woman athlete in 2016, earning almost $29 million.

Rick Macci predicts Coco Gauff will rise to World No. 1 soon following the footsteps of Venus and Serena Williams

19-year-old Coco Gauff created history at the US Open as she came back from a set down to become the first American teenager to win the country’s major tennis tournament since Serena Williams in 1999. The 6th seed defeated the newly crowned No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to clinch her first Grand Slam title. With the win, she also became the first American to win a US Open singles title since Sloane Stephens in 2017.

Coco Gauff and Rick Macci (Credits: IMAGO)

Rick Macci took to X to share his experience on a podcast he had just done. He revealed that he was asked the number one question in the tennis world, the comparisons between Gauff and Williams. “Just finished a podcast and was asked the number ONE common thread Coco Gauff, Serena Williams and Venus Williams have in common. The Number ONE common thread is all three have been or will be No.1,” revealed Macci.

Before the tournament, many touted the teen as one of the favorites for the US Open title. She headed into the US Open on the back of a successful North American hard-court swing. Gauff won the Washington Open last month, beating Maria Sakkari in the final. It was her first WTA 500 singles title. The American followed it up with her first WTA 1000 title at the Cincinnati Masters. Indicative of her consistency, the American has followed it up with her biggest title to date, the US Open 2023.

She has also qualified for the WTA Finals in both singles and doubles for the second year in a row. She will pair up with fellow American Jessica Pegula.