Rick Macci was the first head coach of Venus and Serena Williams, and was hand-picked by the father of the two legendary US stars, Richard Williams. Macci participated in a podcast with host Fabio Molle on The Functional Tennis Podcast, where he stated that he saw a special talent in Serena and Venus Williams and decided he had to go all in for them.
Macci revealed that he went so far as to purchase an RV for them, which cost him $92,000. He told, “I got involved in the $12 million contract. Yeah, no, when you get into housing, you know, I bought them a $92,000 RV. It had a bed, a TV, I’m saying.
Wait a minute, the My car only cost $30,000, so. RV, lodging, food, you got Tae Kwon Do, boxing, everything. I mean, I went out of my way to provide a one stop shop, motivational haven for these two girls!”
The legend of Venus and Serena Williams
In more than twenty years, Serena and Venus won 121 singles tournaments, 4 mixed doubles tournaments and occupied a total of more than 300 weeks at number one in singles and eight weeks also in the doubles rankings.
After the 2002 French Open, Venus and Serena were number one and two respectively in the singles rankings. Both are part of the small group of tennis players who have won the most titles ever. Partnering in women’s doubles tournaments, the Williams sisters have won 14 Grand Slam titles and on one occasion won 4 consecutively (from Wimbledon 2009 to Paris 2010), but not in the same calendar year.
There’s no shortage of achievement at the Olympics either: they’ve captured a total of four gold medals each, including three together in women’s doubles and one each in singles. Venus is also the tennis player, including men, with the most Olympic medals won, five.
Between them, they also kindled an intense rivalry. In fact, they have met 31 times, of which 9 times in a Grand Slam final. They are, therefore, the second pair who have met more times in the women’s singles finals behind Chris Evert-Martina Navrátilová, who have met 14 times. Serena finished ahead in number of matches won (19-12).
