Rick Macci talks discovering Venus and Serena, why he wants to coach Raducanu and in defence of hard courts

Rick Macci thought he was mad when he answered Richard Williams's call and turned up in Compton to see his two little girls play tennis. What he saw was two of the greatest of all-time in the making: Venus and Serena Williams. As portrayed by Jon Bernthal in the Oscar-winning film King Richard, Macci coached the girls for four years and remains friends with the whole family. We talk:

Why Serena and Venus are "like family" to him

What marks out a special player

How he could fix Emma Raducanu's game

Clay courts of the USA (and why hard courts could be a better coach)

What's happened to Sofia Kenin

And so much more!

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Laurie on email: Would Calvin be able to elaborate about the 4 stages of a shot (anticipation, perception decision and action) and how these differ from each other? Also specifically regarding the component, shaping, diversion and automatic stages of developing these?

Sami Dowd on Twitter: Was Calvin encouraged at all with Dominic Thiem's performance against Stefanos Tsitsipas or does he still think there is no way he comes back?

Love Will Survive on Twitter: Why didn’t you lot record a pod from May 2019 to 2020?

Tim Mason on Twitter: Protected rankings - how long do you get them for and who has ever really benefited? Kyle Edmund not having much fun at the moment.

Laurie again: Was Brandon Murphy 's behind-the-back passing shot in the UK pro league the shot of the year so far? I can't quite tell from the footage but he looks like he's fully de-weighted when he hits it?!

[Watch it here: https://twitter.com/TennisLegende/status/1647560959530090500]

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