The childhood coach of Serena Wiliams and Venus Williams, Rick Macci has a deep intricate relationship with Florida himself. Although he was born in Greenland, Ohio, the 7-time USPTA (United States Professional Tennis Association) National Coach of the Year served as a consultant for the USTA Player Development Program in Boca Raton, Florida. For this, he entered the USPTA Florida Hall of Fame. He also established the Rick Macci Tennis Academy in Florida, which had a new esteemed visitor recently, the 2023 US Open champion, Coco Gauff.
Macci has hailed Coco Gauff for taking some time out of her busy schedule and visiting the Rick Macci Tennis Academy. He couldn’t appreciate the No.1 American women’s player more and expressed his gratitude towards her. Macci also believes that at 20 years of age, Gauff is setting very high standards as a role model. Here’s what he wrote on X.
“Thank you to a very special role model on and off the court. Everybody kid and parent at the Rick Macci Tennis Academy in Boca Raton appreciated the time this champion took to inspire and light a fire after filming all day. Everybody was LOCO FOR COCO. @CocoGauff.”
Rick Macci, courtesy his long service to the game, has garnered 3,806 followers on X. His tennis academy page has 37,100 followers approximately. Everybody in his academy looked up to Gauff, and they gave her a rousing welcome. Gauff then a pep talk to all those in there who aspire to be like her. Rick Macci’s happiness must’ve been over the top since he’s extremely fond of the tennis star. He has previously sung praises of her before too.
“The best is yet to come for Coco, but she’s gonna have to keep adding little elements to her game and especially modify the forehand. But I love Coco Gauff and she has just as good a chance as anybody on any surface, except maybe clay where Iga I think is by by far the leader in the clubhouse,” said Macci in an exclusive interview with Tennis Infinity.
Coco Gauff is doing her part for tennis in Florida and the US to thrive
Coco Gauff was recently seen supporting a USTA initiative to produce more players from Florida. The initiative was to revamp the tennis courts at Pompey Park, Delray Beach, where Gauff grew up playing. It was part of the US Open Legacy initiative, created to honor Gauff’s 2023 US Open win. Very rightfully so, Coco Gauff inaugurated the initiative, and that too in Delray Beach, Florida, her hometown.
This is just the beginning as the USTA aims to revive the lost glory of tennis in the US, and they want to start with this initiative. They aim to get 10% of the US population i.e. 35 million people (approx) to play tennis by 2035. They are doing this by a multifold method.
The USTA has already spent $3 million to refurbish tennis courts all across the nation. They have tracked and estimated that the popularity of tennis is on the rise in the US ever since COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed. Therefore, they are jumping on this rising trend and simply making sure that better experiences are provided.
Here’s what USTA’s Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Lew Sherr had to say on that matter, as per Forbes.
“Rather than simply having the most tennis players in the world, what we want to do is become the most popular tennis playing nation in the world. That would mean 10% of the public participates in tennis, which would take us to about 35 million players. Our projection is to accomplish this by 2035,” said Sherr on this matter.
Speaking further about how he will meet that number, Sherr said, “Making sure that we can deliver better experiences to keep people in the game.”
That is the motive of Lew Sherr and USTA, supported in tandem by Coco Gauff.
