BOCA RATON — It’s the highest of noon in early August and already, it seems as hot as South Florida can be this time of year. Seventy-one-year-old Rick Macci, one of the most renowned coaches in the history of tennis, is oblivious.
He avoids air conditioning - “I’m like a lizard” - and does his thing in long workout pants, short-sleeved shirt over a long-sleeved tee, his skin sun-weathered as it should be after nearly five decades of teaching tennis in this state. He’s in full-on coach mode this day, goading the latest in a long line of prodigies toward, to use one of Macci’s favorite terms, the next level.
Macci, the man who famously developed the world-class games of Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati while also influencing
development of other future professional greats, has another “find” he says can be a world No.1.
He has said this before.
More than once.
When it comes to promotion — of his players, himself or the Rick Macci Tennis Academy — he is all in. Hence, the myriad signage displayed on the academy’s court fencing, imploring players that, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Or Macci’s trademark instruction punctuation heard throughout the complex, over the rhythm of balls being struck on the 19 hard courts and/or 12 gigantic backboards:
“BANG!”
Macci is not shy. Neither is he afraid to misfire.
“No one has been wrong as little as me and no one has been right as much as me,” said Macci, a seven-time United State Professional Tennis Association Coach of the Year.
Vlada Hranchar is the latest tennis prodigy
All indications are that Macci might be right again, when it comes to Vlada Hranchar, a precocious 4-foot-8, 75-pound 10-year-old from Ukraine whose family fled their homeland, first and foremost, for safety. A distant second — but a strong second — was tennis. She already has a nickname, courteous of Macci — "Panther" —but she also has results, or as current lexicon would have it, “receipts.”
Hranchar was an elite junior in Ukraine, considered the top 7-and-under player when she was all of 5 years old. Before you think that had more to do with the competition than our latest wunderkind, stop: Hranchar has had the highest Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), 8.9, ever for a player her age, boy or girl.
On August 4, the kid went a long way toward, if not validating expectations, certainly fueling them. She completed a run through the draw at the latest Battle of Boca tournament - prize-money events Macci hosts weekly at his academy - by beating University of Illinois incoming freshman Lyla Messler in the final 1-6, 6-3 (5-1, retired). The 10-year-old got a $1,500 check. Prior to the final, Hranchar beat two other college-level players.
A week later, Hranchar made an unseeded run to USTA National Girls 12-and-Under Championship in Norcross, Ga. The Panther lost 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) to 10-seeded 11-year-old Lailah Cowgill, an outstanding Texas junior.
“Unreal effort from the Panther,” Macci said after nationals. “[Keep in mind] that she’s not winning any points on her serve and the second serve is where she’s immediately on the defense, but all these yesterdays of learning how to scrap and dig and fight … when she gets bigger, fasten the seatbelt.
“I’m very proud of this little kid … you can’t make this stuff up.”
Rick Macci's tennis academy now operates in West Boca
The latest incarnation of the Rick Macci Tennis Academy lives and breathes at Burt Aaronson South County Regional Park in west Boca Raton, operating via a 20-year lease (2019-2039) with Palm Beach County. Previous locations were Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach and, uh, Haines City. Yes, a place called Haines City, 30 miles west of Disney World and right down the road from Davenport, at the then-fabulous Grenelefe Golf and Tennis Resort.
Grenelefe - “The Miracle in the Orange Groves” as Macci calls it - evolved on a fast track in the mid-1980s from a facility known for vacations and corporate outings to one of the most famous tennis training spots in the world.
You can’t make this stuff up, either.
Aside from Macci himself, the origin story centers on an aspiring junior player from Winter Haven named Tommy Ho. After three years of training with Macci, he began a run of historic “firsts” in American tennis:
- In 1985, first player to sweep singles and doubles in all of the Boys 12-and-under national tournaments.
- At 15 years, one month old in 1988, youngest Boys 18s winner in the USTA Nationals at Kalamazoo, Mich.
- At 15 years, two months and having received a berth in the ’88 U.S. Open main draw via the Kalamazoo triumph, the youngest male player in the open era to play in the main draw, losing a first-round match to Johan Kriek.
Ho turned professional when he was a student at Winter Haven High School. He didn’t go back, eventually reaching No. 85 in the men’s world singles ranking and No. 10 in doubles. Injuries, primarily a back problem, ended his career. He had high hopes. So did a lot of people, starting with Macci.
“Poster child for turning pro too early,” Macci said, wistfully.
Ho found plenty of life after his late- ‘90s retirement from tennis. To begin with, he got a high school diploma and then a degree from Rice University. He has worked for years in high-level corporate talent recruitment. Living in Houston, he and his wife, McHaley, have two children who both played collegiate tennis.
Life after his own tennis has been good. Some might argue that Tommy Ho, instead of being Rick Macci’s biggest failure, has been Macci’s greatest success.
“I think I’m really more of a life coach more than anything else,” Macci said.
Ho remembers the good stuff, the “voracious appetite for continuous learning” Macci instilled along with a “ridiculous work ethic.” When Ho left tennis, much of the good stuff stuck, like memories of the hundreds of the hand-written motivational letters Macci wrote to him while he was on tour. He also recognizes the legacy that he played such a foundational role in constructing.
“I have a lot of gratitude for Rick,” Ho said. “He poured everything into my development. And I don’t think anyone can argue he hasn’t had an impact in the tennis industry.”
After Ho, who Macci calls “the first of the Mohicans”, the rest came in waves. Jennifer Capriati, who followed Ho’s achievement by being the youngest Girls National 18s champion at 13, in 1989 … the Williams sisters, arriving at Grenelefe in 1991 after Macci flew to Compton, Calif. for a first-hand look and immediately offered them a full academy ride … future American No. 1 Andy Roddick, Mary Pierce, among others.
The Williamses have obviously accounted for most of Macci’s notoriety, perhaps peaking five years ago with the 2021 biopic “King Richard” that focused on the sisters’ one-of-a-kind father as the angle. Pretty good flick. Grenelefe scenes were spot-on. Will Smith played Richard Williams and won an Oscar - right after slapping Chris Rock on live television. Jon Bernthal played Macci. The real coach never looked so buff.
After several years of intense training with Macci that refined and defined the sisters’ games, there was a split. Wasn’t all that pretty, with an original agreement the point of contention. That dispute was settled out of court in 1997. General consensus is Macci got a raw deal, considering the Williamses’ lifetime tennis earnings. Macci hasn’t looked back - only forward - and in light of the goodwill spread by both sides around the film’s promotion, all that looks like so much old news.
Rick Macci's story begins in Greenville, Ohio
The Rick Macci Tennis Academy operation, Macci said, has been valued at between $30-34 million. Have to think that’s helped the looking forward process. Note the word operation. This isn’t the citrus surroundings of Polk County in the ‘90s.
And it surely bears no resemblance to the real origin story, the Rick Macci prequel. We’re talking about a place about as far removed from Boca Raton as possible. Greenville, Ohio.
IYKYK.
Greenville’s population was 12,680 according to the 2025 census, virtually the same as when Macci grew up there in the 1960 and ‘70s. Greenville, tucked into a western edge of the state line, 30 miles from Dayton and only nine miles from Indiana, is famous, basically, for three things: being the hometown of Annie Oakley, the sharpshooting star of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show; its landmark 90-year-old “Maid-Rites” restaurant serving ground beef sandwiches similar to Sloppy Joe’s; and ... Rick Macci.
Macci graduated from Greenville High School in 1973 as a top junior player -- basketball standout, too -- wielding a Wilson T-2000 and practicing wherever he could find cement structures to hit against. His father, Santi, died when Macci was 10. For years, after sundown, his mother Norma would drive him to an unlit court or wall and aim the car’s headlights his way. Macci, without ever having one lesson, became the top 18-and-under tennis player in the Ohio Valley.
Recently, Macci contacted folks in his hometown about having a tennis event that would give back to his community. It’s in the works.
“Rick is like a lot of the hard-working people around this town,” said Drew Terhall, sports editor of the Greenville Advocate newspaper. “Rick really knows where he lived. He knows where he came from.”
Said Macci: One of the big cornerstones of my teaching is I like helping others more than myself and those Midwestern [values] have been with me forever.”
And now we’re talking $30-34 million.
That’s a lot of Maid-Rites.
One more lifelong connection: In January 1973, senior Greenville High guard Rick Macci hit a last-second, game-winning shot to beat West Carrollton 54-53 in overtime.
“That’s where I got it,” Macci said. “3-2-1-0 Bang!”
Rick Macci knows value of hard work - for him and his players
Hard work is the backbone of the Macci experience for his players - and for him. A divorced father of three grown daughters and two grown cats, Macci lives to work. His schedule is round-the-clock, literally. He unlocks the gates to the academy between 3-4 a.m. Balls start being struck around 4-5 a.m. most every day with Hranchar.
“This facility is a county park so I guess I’m a park ranger, too,” he said.
Much of Macci’s instruction is on-line and international - and not just for high-level players. If you have the money and the interest, Macci has the time and the expertise. Macci Magic, that’s the over-arching slogan.
“I have to be ready whenever, wherever, whatever time zone,” Macci said. “I’ve analyzed videos in my car in a dark parking lot. And everyone asks me who my favorite student is, all time. They think it’s Venus or Serena or Capriati, on and on … but for me it’s whoever is on the other side of the net [or screen] in that hour, that minute, that second.
“I always look at things differently. I have a gift to evaluate talents and look at subtle nuances and razor-thin details that make a difference. What others may see is different than what Rick Macci sees.”
A normal week at the academy entails around 2,000 players. They pay anywhere from $5,800-$3,400 monthly, $1,875-$975 weekly or $380-$280 for single-day sessions. Private lessons cost $900 per hour and that’s not a typo.
With such fees come questions and even more so, critics, especially - Where else? - online. Many are active keyboard warriors, some known within tennis circles. Much of the naysaying isn’t unlike what the late Nick Bollettieri heard during his peak coaching years, or the body-blows high-profile coach Patrick Mouratoglou absorbs nowadays on social media. Who knows? But some of the Macci dissent borders on the absurd; one recent post suggested the Battle of the Boca was fixed and that players were perhaps paid to lose to Hranchar.
“You can’t get caught up in that kind of stuff,” Macci said. And as far as Hranchar, “she’s bulletproof. It’s a compliment when people are talking about you and you’re having success.”
“He obviously made himself into a very successful commodity, in his niche,” said veteran tennis journalist Sandra Harwitt. “He’s like a developmental coach, the coach you have after your first coach and whatever coach you’ll have as a pro player.
“The big question about Macci was always if he was disappointed that none of the players he worked with took him along for the ride [on the professional tour] but he claims that wasn’t what he wanted, that [travelling] was not what he was all about.”
The Macci scoreboard shows lots of W’s. Some L’s too, which Macci is fine talking about. Monique Viele and Gabby Price were both pitched big-time as future stars. Neither panned out. Within the industry, it was a bad look for Macci, who says injuries and family dynamics came into play as they sometimes do. And he remains, all these years later, on the hook for Tommy Ho’s ceiling, in some people’s opinion who cite the too-much/too-soon axiom regarding his injuries.
“I have no problem with Rick [as a coach],” said former longtime ATP player Mark Keil, who played collegiately at the University of South Florida. “He has to go down as one of the greatest coaches of all time. Right up there with all the great ones, people like [Robert] Lansdorp, [Harry] Hopman, [Nick] Bollettieri, [Lennart] Bergelin.
“I only had one interaction with Rick. It was at a tournament in Montreal on the practice courts, hitting with Tommy Ho. Rick wanted us to hit it harder, and he just kept telling me to ‘hit the shit out of it.’ Yeah, that’s my one piece of advice I got from Rick Macci - and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Footnote: Keil beat the great Pete Sampras in their only meeting, in 1991. Word is Keil hit the shit out of it.
Vlada Hranchar, family escaped bombs in Ukraine
Vlada Hranchar arrived at Macci’s in the fall of 2023 via a tip from Pete Bodo, the great tennis journalist and author. Bodo had gotten his own tip, about a Ukrainian family with a can’t miss tennis prospect in need of a break in the good ol’ U-S-of-A. Bodo, as you might imagine, had heard such stories. This was different. It wasn’t so much the obvious potential, or the burgeoning Instagram account showcasing the girl worldwide. This was about humanity.
“I wouldn’t have done it - except for the war,” Bodo said. “And now she’s working with Rick. He’s so optimistic ... he’s a tennis nut.”
A long-term training possibility at a Ukraine tennis camp linked to Hranchar’s idol, Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina, vanished when the bombs started falling. The parents, Dmytro and Maryna, fled their home in Odessa, Ukraine with their daughter to Vermont originally, where she trained with pro Chris Lewit until relocating to Florida.
Macci initially saw a video of Hranchar. He was intrigued but nothing more. When he saw her hit the ball live, for maybe five minutes, he was sold. Completely. The feeling was mutual; Macci has a 20-year contract with the Hranchars. Details weren’t being divulged but you can bet Richard Williams wasn’t consulted.
After the Battle of Boca, Macci said, his phone was ringing constantly. Everybody wanted to know about this Panther kid, be it a major sports agent already circling, to another young hopeful, a 9-year-old Russian named Sophia Szabo who rode three hours just to meet Hranchar and watch her punish the ball. The Panther made an impression.
“She hits sooo hard,” Szabo said. “And her stomach, it’s like a wall. I was like, ‘Wow’. I need to practice more ... and get in shape. I want to be the second No. 1 [after Vlada].”
Hranchar, who is home-schooled, was ready to take a slight rest after her runner-up run at the 12-and-under nationals.
“I think Rick is a really great coach for me,” Hranchar said. “He always supports me win or lose … we just keep going and keep fighting.”
Said Macci: “She’s understanding what ‘rare air’ is.”
BANG indeed.
Like the man said, you can’t make it up.
H.A. Branham is a former longtime tennis journalist and former vice president of the U.S. Tennis Writers Association. He authored the 1996 book "Sampras: A Legend in the Works" and also has written eight other books.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: BANG! Rick Macci still training tennis phenoms five decades later
