“He always said ‘I want everybody to think I’m stupid and not like me'"- Serena Williams' ex-coach Rick Macci on why her dad Richard was 'cagey smart'

Serena Williams' childhood coach Rick Macci recently suggested that Richard Williams, father of Serena and Venus, was 'cagey smart'.

Richard started coaching Serena Williams and Venus Williams when they were kids and mentored them for the majority of their careers. The Williams sisters spent their childhood years in Compton, California.

Richard, however, moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, when Serena and Venus were nine and ten years old, respectively. The sisters began training under Rick Macci in the year 1991. They remained under Macci's tutelage until Richard took full charge in 1995.

Over the years, Macci coached several top players, including Maria Sharapova, Jennifer Capriati and Andy Roddick. He also maintained a good rapport with the Williams family in the meantime.

Macci recently took to X (formerly Twitter) to share with his followers, Richard Williams' apparent secret to success. He suggested that Richard thrived on being considered unintelligent.

"Richard Williams was so cagey smart, he always said 'Rick I want everybody to think I'm stupid and not like me. I always told the COMPTON COMEDIAN: 'Trust me you are on track and your fan club is right here on this court!'," Macci wrote.

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"Serena Williams and Venus Williams said: 'We were literally brainwashed to become No. 1'" - Rick Macci

Serena Williams (L) and Venus Williams

Rick Macci recently went down memory lane to the time when Serena Williams and Venus Williams trained under him. He revealed that everything the Willaims sisters learned about tennis was passed down to them either by him or their father Richard.

"It's amazing. You gotta remember. When they were nine to 15, they were looking at the game through a different lens, through Richard's eyes or Oracene's eyes or Rick Macci's eyes, and they were little kids," Macci said during a recent episode of the ATP Tennis Radio Podcast.

He further talked about chatting with Serena and Venus at the screening of 'King Richard', a film based on the sisters' tennis journey. He said:

"So, when we reunited at the afterparty, it was incredible simply because we went down the memory lane. They both said 'Rick, we were literally brainwashed to become No. 1' and that maybe can work if you have the speed, the quickness, and the right coaching but I never talked to either of them and we talked about this even when they were 10 and 11 and Serena was not really that good."