Serena Williams officially took the tennis court for the first time in 364 days

Watching Serena Williams drop her first round Wimbledon Tennis Tournament match Tuesday brought me back some 28 years when I was covering sports for the Miami Herald and Rick Macci was tennis pro at the Inverrary Country Club in Sunrise, Fla.

I took a phone call from Macci one day inviting me to take a short ride with him up to Delray Beach, where at the tennis complex he had a possible interesting scene to reveal. He wanted me to meet up with a Richard Williams whose young daughters Venus and Surena were getting tennis lessons from him. Macci said it wasn’t much to report at the time, but it could be within time.

On the way in his new Land Rover, he explained that Richard Williams, living in California at the time, was the father of five girls, three almost adults, and Venus and Serena, now 12 and 10, and had pieced together an 85-page outline regarding the two pre-teen girls and the world of tennis.

He had left his wife and three other older daughters in Saginaw, Mich., and after a short time learning that tennis could put money in your pocket, set out to make it happen. First, he spent time at relatives in south California who had space, then he put together plans to travel again.

Within time, he coaxed lessons for himself, hung around the courts, borrowed a pick-up truck, made room for the three, and headed across the country southeast to Delray Beach, where he had heard there was a good pro there named Rick Macci.

He had no money for phone calls, so he got to Delray, found Macci, and introduced him to his daughters, Venus 11 and Serena 9. A good guy who loved to teach the sport, Macci arranged for the girls to get some boarding space and found an apartment for their father. Heck, he said, the man was so involved with his dreams of gaining fame for his daughters, he offered his assistance free of charge.

Macci said he couldn’t believe what was behind the serve and volley of the youngsters, and that Richard never missed a practice, took plenty of notes. With each lesson, the girls learned more, and more, and when he entered both in a tournament in nearby Boynton Beach, they were actually the best in the field. Richard ate it up.

A year later, Macci had left Delray for the same role at Inverrary. But he continued to head up the road and continue providing lessons for Venus and Serena and had Richard drive the girls to Inverrary for more lessons and a few tournaments for youngsters.

When he and I arrived at Delray that day, the girls were hitting against Richard. He introduced us and I took notes as a good sportswriter would. Damn, Macci was right, this wasn’t just teaching, it had the look of something big on the way.

Through the years, Richard Williams had his daughters playing well enough to land in tournaments year after year, and Macci, now 67, said he always kept in touch, always provided advice.

At age 80 now, papa Williams hasn’t been to any matches in quite some time. He suffered a massive stroke two years ago and several others earlier that year. He had accumulated about 10 million dollars for all the sweat he had put in bringing fame to his daughters.

He had told Macci that he had gotten the idea of doing this after watching Veronica Ruzici of Russia in a tournament in Carlsbad, Calif. She was having fun and drawing family and friends. On the same court, he delighted in watching Venus and Serena winning a doubles match against two Romanian girls four years older.

Macci, who had also trained the likes of Maria Sharapova, Jennifer Caprietti and Andy Roddick, said he considered Serena his favorite, So in her first match in a year in Wimbledon on Centre Court in late afternoon, sat at his TV Tuesday and watched it, watched how she made mistakes, rallied to force a third set after losing the initial set, 7-5, winning the second set in a resounding 6-1, and then losing a hard-fought 7-6 tiebreaker,13-10, to 115th-ranked, 24-year-old French debutante Harmony Tan that went three hours and 11 minutes and both players drawing standing ovations when it was over.

Said Macci: “Listen, if Serena is aggressive and flying around like batman and starting and stopping like spiderman has that Compton rage that is baked in extra crispy, never ever count out the heart of a champion.”

A 23-time Grand Slam champion, Serena has done so with his support. Glorifying her strength and achievements, Macci tells it best. He said it did not surprise him that she shocked almost everyone when she announced her return after a long gap of 364 days out of competition or a year after she also lost at Wimbledon.

Now he watched her missing shots, shaking her head, rolling her eyes as Tan earned her biggest-ever victory. In between, Williams played very much like someone whose strokes were reminders of the past. She hit blistering serves and strokes and celebrated with arms aloft. She also showed signs of rust alongside glimpses of her signature brilliance.

In the reserved guest box seats at Centre Court, Venus was jumping up and down and praising ever big shot her sister made and rooting for her to coming oh-so-close to pulling out a topsy-turvy match that lasted so long and was contested when the retractable roof shut down for the last two sets because of darkness. A few hours later, it went down to several close points, Tan squeaking through, and the two meeting up at the nets as the crowd rose and applauded.

“Yeeks” Tan said, “When I saw the draw, I was stunned, here I was playing a legend and had no idea what to expect. Oh my God, how can I play after watching her all these times on TV.  But thankfully I got through it. I especially got a jolt when she hit her racket to applaud the two-handed backhand  i hit down the line. I yelled at the same time.”

True, it was a backhand so strong, even Serena had to applaud. It was Tan’s initial Wimbledon and she came into the day with a 2-6 career record at all Grand Slam tournaments. Of her first 11 points, only one came via a winner she produced, the others coming on errors by Williams, either forced or unforced.

Williams wasn’t all that upset, just dejected.

“Today,” she said, “I gave it all I had, she told a pack of reporters after the match. Maybe tomorrow I could have given more. Maybe a week ago I could have given more. But today was what I could do. At some point, you have to be OK with that, and that’s all you can do. You can’t change time or anything else.”

She also mentioned (my former first and best coach) Rick Macci and said I wonder what he would say.

There had been much speculation as to her retirement, but she said she didn’t do much to dispel such speculation after this match, giving vague answers to multiple questions about her future.

“That’s just a question I can’t answer,” Williams said alongside Venus at the post-match interview.

I reached Macci, now still active with the social media and still a coaching Garu in South Florida.

“I still keep in touch with Richard,” he said, “her dad who paved the way for her and Venus since she first met, but he’s still not doing well. Good man, I always give him credit for he paved the way for bringing fame and fortune for his girls and no doubt he did it right.”

Does he keep in touch with Serena and Venus?

“Whenever I can,” he said, “I can never forget the day the three of them arrived in Delray Beach. They were two young kids with a father who had ideas. It was like I shook my shoulders and figured, what the heck, they traveled all this far to find me and I even provided brand new tennis rackets because theirs were old and worn out.”